Earnings call transcript: BEWI Q1 2025 emphasizes sustainability initiatives

BEWI ASA, a company known for its focus on sustainability and circular economy, reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings, highlighting strategic investments in the automotive sector and operational efficiencies. The company, with a market capitalization of $416 million, is leveraging its competitive position in the market with strong emphasis on sustainability and transformative business practices. While specific earnings figures were not disclosed, BEWI’s stock showed a modest increase of 1.33%, reflecting investor confidence in its strategic direction. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company maintains a GOOD financial health score of 2.64, suggesting solid fundamental strength.

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Key Takeaways

• BEWI is operating at 60-70% factory capacity, with a focus on cost management.
• The company is investing heavily in the automotive sector, incurring additional costs.
• A proactive approach to production efficiency has been implemented, with cost-cutting initiatives underway.
• The market shows signs of recovery, with increased demand in automotive and insulation sectors.

Company Performance

BEWI is positioning itself as a leader in sustainability within its industry. The company reported significant investments in its automotive business, which is experiencing additional monthly costs of €200,000 to €300,000. With annual revenue of $801 million and EBITDA of $45 million in the last twelve months, BEWI is managing costs effectively in the Nordic regions and has realized €500,000 of its €6 million cost-cutting target in the first quarter. The company’s strong liquidity position is evidenced by a current ratio of 1.96, indicating robust short-term financial health.

Financial Highlights

• Factory capacity utilization: 60-70%
• Additional monthly costs in automotive segment: €200,000-€300,000
• Cost-cutting initiatives: €500,000 realized in Q1

Outlook & Guidance

BEWI is cautiously optimistic about the future, with plans to continue investing in the automotive sector. The company anticipates a market pickup and is focusing on inventory management and the potential refinancing of its green/sustainability-linked bond. Forward-looking projections for EPS and revenue suggest a gradual improvement over the next two years, with EPS forecasted at 0.05 USD for FY2025 and 0.1 USD for FY2026. Analyst consensus shows mixed sentiment, with price targets ranging from $2.30 to $3.17.

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Executive Commentary

Christian, a senior executive at BEWI, emphasized the company’s commitment to transformative practices. "BEWI is one of the most transformative companies in our industry," he stated, highlighting the continuous improvements in order intake and the strategic decisions made for the company’s owned entities.

Risks and Challenges

• Additional costs in the automotive segment may impact profitability.
• Maintaining competitive pricing while managing volume growth could be challenging.
• Economic uncertainties and market volatility could affect demand in key sectors.

BEWI’s strategic focus on sustainability and operational efficiency positions it well for future growth, although it faces challenges in managing costs and market dynamics. The company’s proactive measures and investment strategies are expected to drive its performance in the coming quarters. With a strong free cash flow yield and expectations of revenue growth, InvestingPro data suggests the company is currently trading near its Fair Value.

Full transcript - Bewi Asa (BEWI) Q1 2025:

Moderator/Host: Thank you, Christian. We’ll do the Q and A in English. So we have already received some questions through the webcast. And please use the chat function in the webcast console. I’ll read the questions.

So first question for you, Christian. How much in BEVs insulation production are now with today’s sale in percentage of maximum production can achieve with today’s factories? So it’s about utilization in the insulation. Approximately what utilization are we operating on today?

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: It’s not equal in all factories, but in general we are operating on approximately between 6070% utilization or capacity utilization. Obviously that is on standard production, we also can go extra shifts in weekends and so on without investing anymore. But in general we are now operating on 60% to 70% capacity utilization on the factories.

Moderator/Host: And then next question. The last year, you have invested quite a lot in automotive business or division. How can we view this? Is it likely that you will keep this within Bevy or other plans?

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: We are always doing what we think is best for the companies we own at any time and this was a good opportunity. We needed to do these investments to follow-up with increasing volumes in automotive and demand and we are continuing to consider our position in automotive.

Moderator/Host: Thank you. The next question: Can you comment on how the start of the Q2 has been compared to the same quarter last year?

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: As I’ve said in the presentation, we are also continuously seeing improvements in order intake. As of now, we see and expect this to continue. And that is also proven by all market statistics. We see that the market is picking up.

Moderator/Host: Then a follow-up question from Ulle Petta in Sberbanken Markets regarding the automotive section. How much did automotive’s mentioned startup costs weigh on the packaging and components segment EBITDA in Q1 this year?

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: It’s difficult to estimate. I don’t have the exact figure, but we are talking about extra cost of 200 to 300,000 each month, equal to around about a little bit less than 1,000,000 in the quarter.

Moderator/Host: Thank you. We will move on. Hermann Dahl, Nordea, a couple of questions. Can you decompose the effects of the improvements in the insulation and construction segment compared to Q1 last year? How much is cost improvement and how much is volume effects?

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: It’s a difficult number to materialize on just a question here, but most of it is the volume effect because you also have the inflation and the extra cost with increased salaries by the year end. So I would like to answer more into depth here, as I don’t have the numbers in front of me. I would like to say most of it is volume effect, if you don’t disagree Marie.

Marie, Financial Executive (likely CFO), BEV: No, but I think it’s back to that we work hard on price management and we’re not taking all the volumes that could be taken. So I think it is a mix because it is volume, yes, but it is also profitable volumes. And I think that we have mentioned this before, that it has been a struggle with profitability in The Nordics. And in The Nordics, we have actually very good progress. Of course, that is a mix of the volumes, but it’s also that we have managed to look into the cost structure when it comes to everything in production, when it comes to fixed costs and so on.

So it is a mix, and it’s extremely hard to put exactly a number to it, but it is a mix.

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: And also underlining the question was into Q1 from Q4. We are clear on that last year we took away a lot of cost in insulation, so the input figure was already pretty low going from Q4 to Q1.

Moderator/Host: No, the question was compared to Q1 last year.

Marie, Financial Executive (likely CFO), BEV: But

Moderator/Host: the second question from What should we think about working capital going forward, given the visibility you have on demand and input prices? That’s probably for you, Marie.

Marie, Financial Executive (likely CFO), BEV: Yes, I think that you can expect that the normal seasonality pattern is that we will continue to add on some additional working capital into Q2, because that is the seasonality best quarter for us. And then we continue to be cautious on inventory. So it will depend upon the development on the raw material price level and that we know only month to month. Underlying, you should expect that we will continue to increase a little bit.

Moderator/Host: Then there’s a question from Alexandra Etbrand in DNB Carnegie. A question regarding the leverage ratio. Is it correctly understood that the reported 5.5 figures only include EBITDA from continuing operations?

Marie, Financial Executive (likely CFO), BEV: No, that is the total operation as per today, so including discontinued.

Moderator/Host: And then a follow-up question. And is it sensible to factor in the euro 75,000,000 in proceeds from the raw merger as well as adding some EBITDA contribution from associated companies when assessing the future leverage level post closing of announced transactions?

Marie, Financial Executive (likely CFO), BEV: Yes. That’s a correct calculation to be Yes.

Moderator/Host: We just have a couple of more questions. Please post if you have more questions. Nicolas Gehin in DNB Carnegie. You mentioned that parts of the euro 6,000,000 in cost cuts in raw took effect in Q1. Could you try to quantify the effect in Q1?

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: No, that figure we know pretty accurate. It’s around €500,000.

Moderator/Host: Okay. And then there is a question from Eva Ordodo or Eva. What is the plan for the refinancing of your green bond, which is really a sustainability linked bond, but what’s the plan for refinancing?

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: I think on a general note, would like to say before Marie take over on that note, BEV is one of the most transformative companies in our industry, meaning we don’t see any companies in the industry which are using so much effort and investments into changing from producing something and selling it, to recycling it and taking it back as a circular economy.

Marie, Financial Executive (likely CFO), BEV: I don’t know what I mean, we intend to refinance that when time is. That

Moderator/Host: was the question we have received. So we thank you for listening in and for posting your questions. And as always, we are available for further questions by email or telephone. So thank you and see you in August.

Christian, Senior Executive (likely CFO or CEO), BEV: Thank you.

Marie, Financial Executive (likely CFO), BEV: Thank you.

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