Earnings call transcript: Astor Group Q1 2024 sees strong growth and strategic moves

Astor Group’s earnings call for the first quarter of 2024 highlighted robust financial performance and strategic initiatives, including the acquisition of Carbonia Composites and investment in Nordic Shield Group. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains impressive gross profit margins of 62.5% and has demonstrated strong momentum with a 174% year-to-date return. The company reported a positive operating cash flow and an EBITDA margin exceeding 10%. Astor’s stock price remained stable, reflecting investor confidence in its future prospects despite no immediate market reaction to the earnings.

Key Takeaways

• Astor reported a one-to-one net sales and order booking ratio, indicating strong demand.
• The company emphasized its strategic acquisitions to boost production capabilities and expand its defense technology portfolio.
• Astor’s market cap stands at approximately 1.6 billion SEK, with a slight increase in its order backlog.

Company Performance

Astor Group’s Q1 2024 results demonstrated stability with revenue aligning with expectations. The company’s focus on niche markets, particularly in defense and high-tech sectors, positions it advantageously as Sweden joins NATO. Astor’s strategic acquisitions, including Carbonia Composites, aim to enhance its production capabilities, while investments in Nordic Shield Group expand its defense technology offerings.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue run rate: Approximately 350 million SEK
• EBITDA margin: Above 10%
• Market cap: Around 1.6 billion SEK

Outlook & Guidance

Astor Group is preparing for a regulated market entry in 2025, with ambitious 2028 financial targets of 22.5 billion SEK in revenue and an EBITDA margin above 15%. The company plans to continue its aggressive M&A strategy and explore potential expansion into additional business areas.

Executive Commentary

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, emphasized Astor’s focus on acquiring niche, high-margin companies, stating, "We are looking for state of the art companies. We like the niche companies." He also highlighted the company’s long-term investment strategy and interest in R&D-focused businesses.

Risks and Challenges

• Supply chain disruptions could impact production timelines.
• Market saturation in niche sectors may limit growth opportunities.
• Macroeconomic pressures, such as inflation, could affect profitability.
• Regulatory changes in defense markets may pose compliance challenges.
• Increased competition in high-tech sectors could pressure margins.

Astor Group’s strategic moves and solid financial performance in Q1 2024 underscore its commitment to growth and innovation, positioning the company well in the evolving defense and high-tech markets. With an InvestingPro Financial Health Score of 2.68 (rated as "GOOD"), the company demonstrates strong fundamentals for future growth. For deeper insights into Astor Group’s valuation, growth prospects, and comprehensive financial analysis, access the full Pro Research Report available exclusively on InvestingPro.

Full transcript - Scandinavian Astor Group AB (ASTOR) Q1 2025:

Philippe, Moderator/Host: Yes. Good morning, and welcome to today’s earnings and acquisitions call by Astor Group. I’m happy to have Victor Bilstrom by my side who will guide you through through the presentation in a minute. Before I hand over, just the information for you that after the presentation, there will be the opportunity to ask questions either via audio line or via the chat functions. I will explain that in detail how that works after the presentation.

And without further ado, Victor, I’ll hand over to you.

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Thank you, Philippe. Hello, everyone. Welcome to this earnings call. It feels like we we had a chat not so long time ago, but, you know, it’s already quarter one numbers and a lot of acquisitions here coming out. So let’s dive into a presentation to to walk them through here.

For those who who don’t know me, my name is Victor Bilstrom. I’m the CFO of the Scandinavian Ostor Group. I have a background from finance and accounting. I’m also the fourth largest investor in Ostor. I own about 1,700,000.0 shares and hold a few warrants as well to increase that going forward.

And on my holding and if you exclude, you know, I’m also the second largest behind Nielsen, who is our biggest shareholder. A little more about Aster for those of you who don’t know Aster too well. So AirSafe, these are our main subsidiaries. From left to right, we have AirSafe. They make, you know, aviation safety, you know, parachutes mainly for for military purposes.

And then we have Marstrum. It’s a carbon fiber manufacturer with a lot of production capacity in Sweden, and then we added we added a new acquisition to to Marshm today. We announced it, and we expect to to close it here soon. And then we have MicroPonant with laser catching and etching in South Of Sweden. We added a add an acquisition in Finland there last we announced it last year.

We we completed it early this year. And then we have Ocelium, the electronic warfare company, which actually is the, you know, the the founding partner in in our store group. And they they have a lot of exciting products in the electronic warfare space and, hopefully, in the future, a blockbuster product with the the Astor Eclipse. And we have ScandiFlash. It’s a flash X-ray company in Sweden with a big market share all over the world.

They they are a truly niche company, and really, really excel in their business. Here are some recent events. If you haven’t seen this, we we took part in in one EV conference in Rome to the left. There you go from left to right again. Matthias was there with with a few members from the electronic warfare part.

And we we it was a very successful event. A lot of new contacts, a lot of lots of good people visiting this event in Rome. And then if we go to the right, last week, was presenting in in Frankfurt in in, you know, a equity conference there. You can see equity forum in in Frankfurt. It was a very good conference.

I met had, you know, almost two fully days booked with one on one meetings with German investors, and they they were quite excited about Astor as a investment object. And let let’s see what that can bring in the future. And, also, if if we go on the top here to the right, we we had a very good inauguration here of of our new production facility in Morskrum. We had a top high ranked military official from Ukraine there speaking. And it it was nice to finally see this three d printer, this Italian three d printer showing what it can do.

And, hopefully, we will see a lot more of that going forward here in the future. Last week, we also got the news that we were or we will be by May here incorporated into the MSCI global share index in the microcap segment. And, of course, that’s a milestone for us, and we have all the prerequisites to be included in the in the larger small cap version going forward because we have a you know, it’s a good good turnover in the share. There’s a, you know, there’s a high free float in our store. And so we have all the prerequisites if we continue on this track to be included in the in the bigger, small cap index going forward.

And and that’s that’s obviously where where the the bigger the bigger money managers look and the asset managers. There’s a lot of ETFs and funds that have the the MSCI global small cap as a benchmark. So so they have to follow or not follow. So they either they include us or not include, and then they have to include something else. But, obviously, you you you need to follow your benchmark.

So that’s a good very good thing that we started off. But, of course, we’re looking higher. And then today, we announced two good acquisitions here with Carbonia Composites. I will come come back to that acquisition later in the presentation. And we also announced investment into Nordic Shield Group, which is a very exciting Swedish defense group.

So, again, perhaps a few of you have seen this, but but for the for those who haven’t, for those who don’t, there’s there’s just a brief introduction to Astor. You know, we have a revenue pro form a head rolling twelve months of about 350,000,000. One thing about Astor is that we have a very strong m and a pipeline. I will come back to that one. Today, we are in three countries.

As I told you before, we we we would like to put down a flag in in another Nordic country or North European country here as soon as possible. We will see when that happens. Looking forward to that. But we have the market cap, which is about 1,600,000,000.0 Swedish. We are listed in MGM in Sweden and in in Germany with a dual listing.

If you include our recent acquisition here, we are above 170 employees, and we will have 10 production sites now. Three business areas and roughly 30,000 shareholders. So if we look at the quarter one numbers, we had you know, it’s a good quarter. You know, there is still some seasonality. I mentioned that in the last earnings call that Q2, Q4 are our strongest quarters.

Q1 is a little bit softer. But we we are still happy about these numbers. It could have been a little bit higher, but still, all in all, it’s a it’s a fairly good quarter with, you know, EBITDA margin still above a healthy 10%. We’re one to one in net sales and orders booked for the quarter. And there’s still a slight increased order backlog that we can continue and deliver on.

And obviously, all the acquisitions we announced today and, hopefully, going forward, you know, acquisitions add to the order book. Yeah. So so it will rise with both our our current businesses and with the businesses we acquire, of course. That’s part of the M and A agenda we have. And we had a positive order operating cash flow again here.

We had it to Q4 as well, so that’s really good. And we showed a net profit. If you look at it on a segment basis, we have two profitable segments here going forward. We’re not showing Astor Protect here, obviously, because it was included from April 1. So it will show in the quarter two report.

But it’s a good quarter. And as I said before, we are doing our best to keep keep our overhead costs down. We are not we don’t have a a dedicated m and a specialist. I do the a lot of m and a work together with the CEO, and and we we hire competence where we need, but we don’t want to add to our overhead too much. And here are the numbers.

It’s a it’s a little a few quarters here back, and you can see the trend is is very good. If you would have extended this further, the obviously, the trend is even more visible. But but here, you can see that we there’s a there’s a strong growth here about 100%, and you can see that it’s starting to scale very well here as well. We can see the profit levels are coming up. Obviously, you know, q four was very, very good.

Q one, we as I mentioned, we we’re still happy about it, but could have been a little bit higher. But but q two and and q four are are our our our our best quarters. Of course, with m and a that with the m and a agenda we have, it will be somewhat smoothened out. You know? It’s it’s will be different seasonalities maybe in the businesses, and and the q one will will be a little bit stronger here in the future, I think.

And here, as I mentioned, we have we are we are we are present in in two countries here in The Nordic, in Finland and Sweden. We have a sales office in in Germany. We would like to expand that the German markets. That that was why I was there in the investment in the equity forum last week. Our CEO, Matthias, he used to be responsible for SOPS business there on the EV side.

And and we have a lot of obviously, the it’s a a very good market for the defense business in Germany. So obviously, we want to expand our presence there in the future. For those of you who haven’t seen this slide, you know, we we still keep it here to to to mention for you that we we are looking for state of the art companies. We we like the niche companies. They have a they have, obviously, good margins.

They are very good at what they do, and it’s easy. Once you get hold of a of a of a good company that’s in a in a certain sector, it’s easy to do a lot of, add on acquisitions. So I will come back to that later as well. And here is, you know, the integration into the the into the business areas we have. You know, we have Alstorteq with ScandiFlash, Ozilion.

We have the industry part now also with Carbonia Composites there. It’s Marstrom, Carbonia, VLS, and a lot of, you know, add on acquisitions to Marstrom there. We have the the newly founded air business area in AstroProtect where we have AirSafe. And and now we we have a associated company there in Nordic Shield Group. And then we might look into expanding into another big business area here going forward, but more about that later.

And, you know, this is the journey we are on. We are we we we we took a big step, we think, a big leap there to to where we are today. The next step, I think we are on track on that one, and we we are trying to keep the pace up and moving to become this mid market player here as soon as possible, really, but but it’s in the long term goals. And, obviously, that’s the that’s the next slide there. I think we we will reach that at a certain point.

And when we put this into a number, it’s it’s roughly it’s a $22,500,000,000.0 Swedish in 2028, and it’s a EBITDA margin of of above 15 equal to or above 15% in 2028. Now over to our first acquisition here. It’s Carbonia Composites there. So we are very happy about that one, and it will be I will show you in the next slide. They they they are a very good complement to our current business.

I can see there that the EV, EBT, a multiple didn’t come in, but in the numbers there to the right, but we it it was made on a healthy, you know, multiple of 3.9 on the on the on the the full year numbers for last year. No. So so here is the here is the sort of the the the synopsis for for making this acquisition. I I’ve been waiting to I’ve been talking about this picture to the right a lot of times, but but now you can see it here. So to to the right and and the in the explanation to the left, you can see in in the carbon composite market, there are, you know, three qualities or or three production mess methods if you want.

It’s a prepreg, auto autoclave based that we do in Marstram or that’s the only production method we have used until now. And then we have the RTM, the resin molding, which which Carbonia composites does very well. And then there’s the wet lamination where there are a lot of competitors. But but, obviously, it’s a different technique, and it’s not it’s not really suitable. It’s suitable for a lot of things, but, you know, the the prepreg and the RTM is a much more efficient technique, and it gives the customer a lot of a lot of better qualities they are looking for.

For example, here, if you go to the spider chart to the right, you know, we can see the surface finish. You can actually do the best in this RTM technology. That’s what we are adding with the acquisition here. Of course, the especially the defense industry, they are looking for, you know, very complex complex constructions, and there’s a lot of, you know, structural capability. It needs to be very firm.

It needs to be, you know, hard of steel and with carbon fiber. And and that’s obviously where this autoclave based technique is the best. That’s why we are focused on that. But if you want to do a lot of, you know, automation, you know you know, it’s the same version in a in a lot of in a lot of ways, two d versions, the RTM technology is the best. You know, you you can do so much with automation there and just get a lot of get a lot of products out of your of of your business.

So so then that technique is is suitable. And then the manufacturing time is obviously you you can do it very, very fast with the RTM technology. So have a look at this spider chart, and and you you you will see that we are we are now filling all the market needs in in every sense. And, of course, this technique can be used for, you know, like drones, blades to to to drones or or other, you know, more, you know, high high production volume parts to the defense industry that that that we couldn’t do with the with the autoclave based or the prepreg production that we have until today, the only technique we we had to to sell to the market. But now, as I mentioned, we we we will have a broader portfolio here to to show to the to the prospective customers.

And then we have this, you know, exciting investment into Nordic Shield Group. You can see down to the right there in the pictures, the the new chairman of Nordic Shield Group will be Bernd Gurundrik. You know, he’s he’s a highly respected military official from from from Sweden. And our own high high ranked military guy, the Gabb. He he will also join the board of directors, so will I.

So we will have two two of our two two two members in the board of Nordic Shield group, and we will help them with what we can, but they have I think they have a very good team. They have a very good CEO in Peter Oddleson. And they have a lot of exciting things to come up here. They’re looking to acquire Cesium, which is which is a manufacturer of, you know, of shelters of in in they they they are making, you know, secure buildings. They they they have a lot of good business coming their way in the in the defense industry.

Obviously, we cannot measure their customers, but it’s looking very good for them. And this NordShield group, they will, you know, strengthen our offering in the in the AstroProtect business area. And there’s a lot of synergies here, we think, for the group. And one thing to mention here as well that there will be you know, since it’s a associated company, they will con not contribute to the top line, but they will contribute to our margin going forward. So so they they will be part of the income statement, but on the operating profit level.

And here is, you know, a picture I wanted to show you guys before, but I didn’t have time to make it. But I think this is explains fairly well our, you know, m and a agenda here with add on acquisitions to market leaders. So we we’ve I think we have had a very good success story with Marstrum. We acquired them. They were you can say that they were the real first acquisition Aster made.

They were done in 2022. That was the time when I came in as owner. And, you know, it was done early twenty twenty two, and you can see the numbers are are shooting away. And the the you know, they used to have a turnover of around, you know, $35.40 ish million Swedish, and now they have really excelled. And I I will not say it’s completely up, thanks to Alstor, but we we have tried our best to help on that journey.

They have a very successful CEO, Ylfredi Glyn Blom, of course, who who made this journey possible. But we we made a lot of or or a few, you know, add on acquisitions. This year, we added either Model and Jungbe. Now we added Carbonia. You can see, yeah, just in quarter one, they they almost had the same turnover as in the full year of 2021.

So assuming just one quarter, they had the same turnover as they did for a full year a few years back here. And then it of course, you can see that started to scale quite well as well with the with the numbers coming through on the EBITDA level there. So you can see that it’s the the the earnings are are are shooting up as well. So if we look at the rest of 2025 and beyond, These are still the instruments we are looking to pay with, you know, equity issuance, debt, and shares. In in the car Carbonia case here, we pay with, you know, 30% shares.

We are looking to pay with about 50% debt. And and, obviously, there’s not a lot to pay in cash, but from our from our cash reserve. But but, of course, that that that can vary over time. But just to give you the this is the toolbox we have. There’s a lot of possibilities to pay with with various instruments going forward here.

And I mentioned a few of these before. We have a strong acquisition pipeline. We are making continuous preparation for for being in a regulated market here later this year in 2025. I also added here that, you know, competition has started, you know, thanks to the recent, you know, turmoil in the in the in the political landscape. You know, obviously, this has affected us somewhat and the the business we are in.

We we’re not really seeing too much competition, but at least we see actors popping up like private equity or special purpose vehicles focusing on defense business or defense startups. So we will see more of that later. But we we we don’t feel any stress about it. You know, we we we are long term investors. So if private equity buys a business, we we can buy it from them in five to six years.

And, obviously, price will be higher, but we we can buy other businesses in the meantime. So, yeah, we we have the long term perspective around this. So we we don’t see this as a as a big a big hurdle for us going forward. And, obviously, there’s a lot of innovation going on. We will as I mentioned before, we one in end one in every tenth investment will probably be into a more r and d focused business.

And this is roughly the same numbers as before. If you compare them, you can see that, you know, the split has somewhat increased on the Europe side of our pipeline split. So so we’re looking more into not just, you know, domestic players, but looking on the North European level. And that’s it. Moving over to the q and a section here.

So thanks you thanks for listening in.

Philippe, Moderator/Host: Yeah. Thank you very much, Victor, for those, for those very interesting insights. So I said in the beginning, there is, there are two options, for you to ask questions. The first option is to raise your digital hand, to ask questions via the audio line. Afterwards, I will give you the permission to unmute yourself.

The second option is to enter the q and a section. Here, you can, enter your questions in text form, and I will read them out afterwards to ask them to Victor, and he will answer them. And for the meantime, we don’t have any questions in the chat. So we will start with Henry Wendish, who raised this hand. Henry, you can unmute yourself here.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: Thanks, Philip. Thanks, Victor, for your presentation. Yes, Couple of questions from my side. But first of all, also congrats on the strong results in the two acquisitions. They look very promising at the first glance.

First question is the seasonality that you mentioned. So Q1 was okay in your view, could have been a little bit better, and you say Q2 and Q4, the most strongest quarters in terms of sales or also in terms of then profitability because operating leverage would obviously kick in properly. So the other question is, is it up q two and q four, are they are they strong also in terms of profitability?

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yes. I I would expect that. Yeah. I lost maybe a word of you or two from you there, but I think I got the question. So I I think, you know, margin wise, you know, I I would expect I would expect it, you know, q two and q four to be a little bit higher than q one.

Obviously, we are sort of in the middle here of q two, so I I cannot, you know, elaborate too much about it. But, you know, with the general seasonality we have, you would expect on a general level that that q two and q four are stronger. Q one and q three are a little bit weaker. But but, obviously, that will change as we go forward. We buy businesses abroad.

They don’t maybe have the same vacation at the same time. Sort of they will have because we’re looking at Northern Europe. But but I I think seasonality will start to you know, it will decrease over time here as as we move forward with new acquisitions, not a lots of new hopefully, not lots of new business just, you know, both from m and a and from current business that we start to, you know, increase increase our our order book and start to deliver even more things.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: Okay. And then maybe following up, is this seasonality also the same when it comes to order intake from your customers?

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: That’s not that’s a little bit different, I would say. That that that can vary a lot. It can be very lumpy as the as the as the defense business is. Both both on our, you know, defense side and on the civilian side, it can be very lumpy. You know, from quarter to quarter, it can be very strong, or it could be a little bit weaker on the order intake.

Yeah. That can vary lot. But, obviously, some of the business again, some of the businesses we have, they are just, you know, they are just delivering on a rolling basis. You know, they they are fully booked like like for example. They are they are fully booked, you know, three months ahead every quarter.

So it’s not they they don’t have the same seasonality. So it will, you know that will also, you know, it will also somewhat decrease over time.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: I see. Yeah. Very interesting. Thanks for this. Then second question is regarding After Eclipse.

You mentioned it could be a blockbuster product. So and I think you wrote it in your q one report that the commercialization might start even this year. Is there something you can add to this in terms of what we could expect maybe in terms of sales? Or are you sort of waiting behind lines to tell us when it’s due when it actually is operating?

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yes. Yes. Thank you for that question. I would so much like to elaborate on that, but it would not be the best.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: So

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: what what we have currently, you know, told the market, that’s all I can say as of now. But but, you know, once we see orders coming through, I think it will be very interesting.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: I see. Yeah. I’m I’m thrilled to to get to know you soon. Yeah. And then let’s talk about the recent m and a.

First on Caponia, please. So if I got it right, so it complements Maastrom in that sense that Carbonia is more of a high volume producer, whereas Maastrom is sort of like a little bit sort of a manufacturer, but also going on to higher volumes going going forward. So is that the right, like, view I have on this?

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: That’s correct.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: That’s correct. Then maybe just following up, how do you then explain the the strong margin? I think it’s above the the industry segment’s margin and probably also above Marstrom’s margins, so Caponia and and itself. Why why are they so strong in margins?

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yes. That’s a that’s a good question. I feel I think I shouldn’t elaborate too much about that either. But only only thing I can say, you know, it’s a it’s a pure financial logic to you know, if you acquire a business, you want to move your margin higher. We don’t want to acquire businesses that, you know, that make our margins lower, you know, on a group level.

So Sure. You obviously, you know, this is a perfect match for us. So so we get an exciting business that complement us very well and with good margins. And and and we we definitely that that’s the whole purpose about Aster, I would say. You know, we they they are not doing, you know, too much defense at this point, but but with the defense connections we have, we and and, you know, our our knowledge about defense market, we we we can sell, you know, defense related production on this site as well.

And, you know, with with the with the high automation and with the margins, I think that could be that that can serve, you know, us the group very well here in the future.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: I see. And then maybe also regarding the acquisition multiple, you mentioned 3.9 EBITDA multiple. And then if we if we include the real estate, which you have, I think, an option for to buy at a later stage, it would be like an age multiple. So how how how are you looking at acquiring this this real estate going forward? Is this something that you’d like to have, or you just are just interested in the in the business, continue leasing, for example?

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yes. That’s a good question. I I I think we definitely we we definitely, at some point, you know, are are looking to acquire the the production facility as well. You know, we we we set our own environmental targets that we are that we want to invest in, you know, instead of doing this, you know, c o two offsets when we fly and stuff. We we would like to, you know, invest in in solar capacity, battery capacity in the production sites, you know, keep the keep the energy costs down and and in that sense, help the helped, you know, environment as well with, you know, have having solar panels on the roofs.

And yeah. So so I think, you know, going forward where we can, we we would like to own our properties. Okay.

Philippe, Moderator/Host: Very interesting.

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: And and and it also it also goes well with security wise. You know? If if things go as we want with Astore, you know, there will be some outside pressure maybe on Astore on on security levels. And it’s much better if we can invest in our own security and, you know, perimeter defense and stuff.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: I see. Yeah. That makes sense. And it’s isn’t just the the the building itself, or is it is it also the machines and then all the the assets sort of that are useful for operation and producing, which are

Philippe, Moderator/Host: in the

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: All the all the fifty five seven million.

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yeah. That’s that that’s just outside building. Okay. Sure. Yeah.

So so we we when we do the when we do the purchase of the business, all the machines are included, obviously. So yeah. Interesting.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: Good. Then we can we can move on to to group. So it’s it’s, in my view, also, like, little little aster, I would say, in terms of that it’s a defense oriented group. Yeah. And if I got it right and I did a quick calculation, if if you just include so the the payment that you do would be just for Cesium, it would be a 7.3 EBITDA multiple.

And then you would also get, of course, the NSG business on top. So the total acquisition multiple would be below that. Do you have any numbers that you might share or could share with us what is NSE in itself doing in sales and EBITDA excluding the CCM acquisition that is soon to follow so we can have a little grasp of of, like, what’s how is how it is operating and outside, how big it is.

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yeah. Of course. Of course. You know, I we we we try to keep the the press release a little bit short there not to to expand too much at this point about MSG. You know, I think we will we will follow-up on this going forward once everything is completed, you know, with with all the the the with ISP with we we we want them to, you know, have a smooth process in their acquisition of the CCM.

So so I think we will expand more about NSG here here after the summer.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: But it’s it’s too early to tell. So

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s it’s a little early. I think we’ll we we we will obviously, we we know a lot of good stuff happening around this company, but but we I I don’t want to expand too much about that at this time. But, obviously, you know, this with with Sweden being part of NATO now, obviously, there will be a lot of demand for for this kind of equipment that sees in in concrete.

They are they are a true market leader in that sense. And also, NSG on their level, they have a lot of exciting own products that they are planning to to get sales on here in in the future. So so we are really looking forward to to that acquisition. And if things go well, we we will we would like to, you know, increase our share of that business.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: K. Very interesting. And then maybe if I let loose my imagination a little bit more Yeah. Is is it also they I think they have one subsidiary, which is software centric business. Right?

So is it also the start of Astore integrating into software, the defense services, or is this just my

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: No. That that that’s a little too early to to say. But but I I I think what what you need to focus is if you look on them, for example, this NES business. So so n NSG, they are NSG is the mother company, and they they will have two subsidiaries in this. NES will they make, you know, server holds, but on on a on a fortified level.

You know? They and and they they are made with the with the concrete from Cesium. So so Got it. It’s yeah. So they they they are it’s very hard to make a physical breach, and, you know, it’s not possible to to put through elect electromagnetic pulses and stuff.

So so there’s a lot of synergies between them. It it may it may look like we’re going into something else, but I think we’re not. Not at this point. But but who knows?

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: Yeah. Very, very interesting. So, yeah, that’s that explains a lot. And then one more detailed question. I think on page 19, you showed us development of Maskstrom.

Yes. If you could go to that again. Yes, exactly, Page 18, sorry. So the on the right hand side, the €12,500,000 in 2024, this is adjusted EBITDA per quarter.

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: So it’s Per year. Per year.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: Per year. Okay. That was confused about how the margins have gone up. So that’s okay. That’s

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: the Yeah. And it’s also important to mention that it’s adjusted. And the only thing we have adjusted is, you know, obviously, we are a group, so we have management fees to be able to to to Mhmm. To to work on the group level. So so that’s the only thing that’s in this adjusted number.

Apart from that, it’s the it’s the same numbers as the official accounts that’s reported to the to the official every year.

Henry Wendish, Investor/Analyst: Okay. That’s been it then from my side. Thank you very much. It’s been very helpful.

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yep. Thank you. Oh, Philip, we can’t hear you. Sorry.

Philippe, Moderator/Host: Excuse me. So, thank you very much, Henry. In the meantime, we received one question in the, q and a section, which is as follows. With the, defense, sector showing, those strong, order intakes, how are you able to buy companies at such such low multiples?

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Yes. Yes. I I think, you know, it it’s it’s based on this dual use. You know, they they are not too much into defense at this point. But, obviously, when we buy them, we can put in the defense business there, and they would they are looking to to move into the business.

They they have started the discussions, but they they really need, you know, a player like Astor to come in and and help them with with selling to the military industry. So that’s that’s why. I I I agree. It’s a good question. But, obviously, if we go, say, when we’re looking at going abroad, buying a completely new business somewhere else that maybe is, you know, already doing 100% defense, that that could mean we obviously have to go higher on on on multiples.

I I don’t want to expand too much about that, but, yeah, you would expect a little bit higher.

Philippe, Moderator/Host: Perfect. I I think that’s that that answers the question adequately. Thank you, Victor. So for the moment, I don’t see any raised hands and also no more questions in the q and a. So once again, the reminder, if you want to ask a question via audio, raise your digital hand.

If you wanna ask a question via text, you can put it into the q and a section. Maybe we give it another couple of moments and see if there are any questions left. If not, of course, you can also send your questions in afterwards to the ASR IR team or also to to to the analysts here at New Waste. And as there are no further questions, I would say thank you for participating. Thank you, Victor.

That’s it from my side, and I would leave it to you, Victor, to have some final remarks on your presentation.

Victor Bilstrom, CFO, Astor Group: Thank you, Filip. Yep. Thanks for spending forty five minutes with me and Astor here. And, hopefully, you know, we we have a lot of other exciting stuff here coming up, so we will probably speak again here at some point. Thanks a lot.

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