Earnings call transcript: Cloudberry Clean Energy Q2 2025 sees power production surge

Cloudberry Clean Energy reported significant growth in power production during the second quarter of 2025, marking a 30% increase year-over-year. According to InvestingPro data, analysts anticipate continued sales growth this year, supported by impressive gross profit margins. Despite this positive performance, the company’s stock experienced a slight decline of 0.89% in pre-market trading, reflecting mixed investor sentiment. The earnings call also highlighted strategic partnerships and operational milestones aimed at enhancing the company’s renewable energy portfolio.

Key Takeaways

• Power production increased by 30% compared to the previous year.
• The company partnered with Swiss Life and OX2 to expand its hydropower and wind project capabilities.
• Stock price dropped 0.89% in pre-market trading despite positive operational updates.
• The company maintains a strong cash position and undrawn credit facilities.

Company Performance

Cloudberry Clean Energy demonstrated robust operational performance in Q2 2025, with a notable 30% increase in power production. This growth is attributed to strategic partnerships and the expansion of its diversified renewable energy portfolio across multiple technologies and countries. The company has also focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet to support future growth opportunities.

Financial Highlights

• Total cash position: €848 million (proportionate) and €771 million (consolidated)
• Credit facility: SEK 500 million, currently undrawn
• 80% of debt is fixed at long-term rates below 4%
• Average net power price: €0.62 per share

Market Reaction

In pre-market trading, Cloudberry Clean Energy’s stock price fell by 0.89%, closing at €13.38, down from the previous close of €13.50. InvestingPro analysis shows the stock is trading near its 52-week high of €1,465.01, with a remarkable 34.41% return over the past year. The current decline comes despite positive operational updates, suggesting that investors may have had higher expectations or concerns about future growth prospects. For deeper insights into Cloudberry’s valuation and growth potential, access the comprehensive Pro Research Report, available exclusively to InvestingPro subscribers.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, Cloudberry Clean Energy aims to prioritize profitability over growth while maintaining strong financial discipline. While InvestingPro data indicates the company’s net income is expected to decrease this year, its liquid assets exceed short-term obligations, providing financial flexibility. The company plans to explore hybrid project opportunities and continue developing its diversified renewable portfolio, with potential expansions in solar, wind, and battery technologies. InvestingPro subscribers have access to 8 additional key insights about Cloudberry’s financial health and growth prospects.

Executive Commentary

• Anders Lendborg, CEO: "We will continue to focus on profitability over growth."
• Ole Christopher Bragnes, CFO: "We have a great foundation for continuous growth."
• Anders Lendborg, CEO: "New renewable power is in high demand."

Risks and Challenges

• Market demand fluctuations: Potential underestimation of power demand could impact growth.
• Regulatory changes: Shifts in energy policies may affect project timelines and costs.
• Competition: Increased competition in the renewable energy sector could pressure margins.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the Fortellenogy Norway portfolio transaction and the redesign strategy for the Nezhed solar project. Executives highlighted the potential for hybrid project development and the strategic importance of these initiatives in driving future growth.

Cloudberry Clean Energy’s Q2 2025 performance underscores its commitment to expanding its renewable energy footprint while maintaining financial stability. Despite a slight dip in stock price, the company’s strategic initiatives and focus on profitability position it well for future success.

Full transcript - Cloudberry Clean Energy As (CLOUD) Q2 2025:

Anders Lendborg, CEO, Cloudberry Clean Energy: Hi, and welcome to Clabber Clean Energy’s First Half Year Report. My name is Anders Lendborg, and I’m joined here by our CFO, Ole Kristoffer Beragnets. We have a presentation for you that we would like to go through. And please also use the Q and A button and send us questions and we will try to answer as many of the questions as possible after the presentation. Before diving into the details, let’s have a look at the agenda.

I will go through the highlights and then Oleg Kristoffer will take you through the key financials and I will finish up with some comments to the market. And here you see our hydropower intake on our Tredal Selva project on the right hand side. It has been a busy quarter for Clabri. We have had many busy quarters, but this is it’s been a very interesting quarter where we have partnered up with Swiss Life creating one of the top three small scale hydropower platforms in The Nordics. Our cooperation with the Swiss Life go back to 2020 and we have constantly developed our partnership and our portfolio.

And with this new merger of our resources, create a platform that can cover the full life cycle of our hydropower projects where the Forti team have a long track record developing new hydropower plants and Clowbry had more focusing on the management of the producing hydropower plants. So very pleased to see that and very happy to come back to that later in the presentation. That has been or is a game changer for Cloudberry’s hydro platform. In addition to that, we have farmed down and also entered into a cooperation with OX 2 on our Duheln project in SC3. So that is also a new constellation for us and we are looking forward to the cooperation with OX2 on the wind side.

And another highlight for the quarter is our FID on the Dingelson BEST project. It’s a project that we have worked with over time with our partner, Hofs Lund, the utility of Oslo, and we are happy to have taken the first FID on our first BEST project. And last but not least, we are always following up our production assets and making sure that they produce as good as possible and happy to say that we have all turbines back to service on the Odal Wind Farm. You see here on the right hand side that our production have increased throughout the years, almost 200 GeVH the last quarter. And also the installed capacity has increased, it looks like a small decrease on the capacity side, but that’s due to the Fotter transaction.

But if you add also the power plants under construction, it will be an increase also on installed capacity. Oleg Stofer will come back to the numbers in more details, but we are very happy to see that we have realized the power price that is twice the system price in The Nordics. So this shows that our strategy when it comes to diversifying a portfolio on different price areas and staying merchant is an attractive one. But let’s take one step back and let’s just have a couple of minutes on who we are. The Cloudberry platform.

We have created a profitable Nordic IPP over the last years. We are covering our project from a very early green phase greenfield to when they are in production and under operations. So to have a platform covering the full life cycle of our project is important for us. And this develop own and operate strategy has also given us a lot of flexibility that together with the portfolio. We have now four different technologies with different production profiles.

We are in three different countries with different regulatory regimes, eight different price areas where we have the vast majority of our projects in the southern price areas of Norway and the southern price areas of Sweden and in DK1 in Denmark. As you can see here on the map, we have some development projects and construction projects in the North Of Norway and that are some of the project that came into our portfolio now. But we will keep on focusing on the attractive Southern price areas, we will then continue also to develop the projects in the South. So this combination of different countries, price areas, technologies and projects in different phases gives us a fantastic flexibility. I think the flexibility of Glabrio, the flexibility in the platform and in the portfolio has been super important for delivering good results throughout a difficult market.

It’s also important to notice that our backlog with exclusive projects is something that we develop in house from greenfield and the pipeline is something that we use to make a best possible mix of project and technologies and that is our network and through M and A activities. So we have a combination of in house developed, but also we’re using the market where we see the best opportunities. So that’s Clabber in short, a Nordic profitable IPP platform with a great flexibility. And here you see our production profile. Our production portfolio has increased over the years.

And as you can see, we have also focused on diversifying it. And as you see here on the right hand side, we will keep on diversifying it with now also batteries and best projects in the portfolio. We’re happy to see that we have, five years, managed to pass 1,000 gvH or one terawatt hour in production. And here you have the breakdown of our production portfolio on the left hand side. As you can see, it’s an increase also in production when we are taking the project under construction into consideration.

But as important is the right hand side where you see where our backlog and permitted project. And we always focus on adding new project to the backlog and looking at attractive possibilities in the pipeline to always make sure that we build a portfolio that is diversified and also with attractive production profile throughout the year so we can deliver stable production. We have also added a slide to the presentation on the Fotter transaction. As I said, we are very happy to create a new leading hydropower platform in The Nordics, top three. And I think this just not only adds new production to our portfolio and new project in our backlog, but it also adds a lot of knowledge and experience and capabilities on developing the project from early phase greenfield projects until they are in operation and we have them under our management.

We have touched upon the hydro expansion. We have also talked about the Dinghenson project, also happy to see new partnerships coming on the wind side in Sweden. As many remember, we entered into a partnership with Holmen, one of the larger owners of land in Sweden, but now also entered into a partnership with Sveasco, one of the largest landowners in Europe, the largest forest owner in Sweden. And we have 100 megawatt project there to start with and we will add new project to that portfolio. On the Danish expansion, we have touched upon that earlier, but we have also now seen that we have managed to get a very positive overall valuation on our farm down sale of Swahia Wind Farm in Norway equating NOK 17 per share as we did when we did the acquisition in Denmark.

On the future, going from towards 2,030, we will continue to focus on profitability over growth. It has been our focus over the last couple of years and it will continue. We have seen that some of the projects will not meet our requirements. Then we take a step back, we redesign and we use more time on it instead of trying to push things through because we have also a lot of other projects in our portfolio that are meeting our return requirements. So we will continue to focus on profitability over growth and we have always focused on being very well financed, have a strong balance sheet and that will also continue in the future.

And of course, to see the team delivering on these projects on the different technologies and redesigns and all the things we work with now is very satisfying and very happy with how we have executed on these projects over the last quarter. Yes, on the ESG side, I think the most important is that we have had no recordable HSE incidents or damages in the second quarter. Then I give the word to Oleg Gustafel that will take you through the key financials, and I will come back at the end of the presentation. Thank you.

Ole Christopher Bragnes, CFO, Cloudberry Clean Energy: Thank you so much, Anders. My name is Ole Christopher Bragnes, CFO of CloudBerry. And as always, I’m very happy to take you through the financial story of this quarter. So let’s start like we did last time with a bird’s eye view of the Clabber balance sheet. And this is, I call it, the flip side of our portfolio development when we see it in the numbers.

When we started Clabbery and listed it in 2020, it was very important to us to showcase that we were able to get access to the projects, that we are able to deliver them on time and cost and grow the portfolio in a diversified and profitable manner. So you see here in numbers answers to some of that questions. We have seen a significant growth in our portfolio through you can see in the asset side. And we’ve also been quite cautious of debt, raising the equity as we’ve grown over EUR 300 now up to date at continuously increasing price levels. So that’s been important to us to showcase that we are able to deliver and creating the Nordic renewable platform, and we are now in a great position in order to capitalize on this going forward, as you see in the snapshot here on the Q2 twenty twenty five financials with a strong balance sheet and a great foundation for continuous growth to capitalize on what has been built.

If we dive into the balance sheet financials for Q2 twenty twenty five, we can first touch upon the drop in total equity. You also saw that on the last slide. So here it’s important to revert back to the transaction we announced in Q1 twenty twenty five with Skov Goy, where we acquired the majority of almost all the minority positions in especially our Odin portfolio and having him reinvest into CloudBerry at a substantial premium as we previously touched upon supporting the values of the CloudBerry portfolio. But that reduced our noncontrolling interest in our portfolio from $643,000,000 in Q2 twenty twenty four to now SEK 71,000,000 in Q2 twenty twenty five. So the equity to controlling interest, I.

The shareholders of Glaubery has increased over this period, both in nominal terms, but of course, also in book value per share, which is very important to showcase our growth and our value proposition. Further, we still have a strong credit facility in place where we now have SEK 500,000,000 currently undrawn after having repaid some debt in relation to transactions, which Anush touched upon earlier. And a strong cash position of EUR $848,000,000 on a proportionate basis or EUR $771,000,000 on a consolidated basis gives us great room for growth combined with our credit facility. And we have continuously hedged our debt throughout our journey and have, per the end of the second quarter, around 80% of proportionate interest bearing debt fixed at long term agreements and at an all in rate below 4% with a long tenure. And we’ll continue on doing so going forward.

Going to liquidity and commitments overview. We touched upon the cash position in the earlier slides. From to showcase what we have in available funds, we see that we have some remaining CapEx on Sundblomont Gitan, around EUR 2,000,000 and then final invoices, some pending grid updates, which you can read more about in the report. And we’re also happy, of course, to see that we’re taking the FID on the Dingellsuna best project. We have around EUR 3,000,000 in committed CapEx there, which has been injected into our mutual SPV with Hofsloom subsequent to this quarter.

The Fortran transaction has been an important transaction that we did subsequent to the quarter here again, and we paid around EUR 5,000,000 for the shares in Fortranogy Norway portfolio, getting into the control in that portfolio of 55% ownership. We had EUR 62,000,000 in undrawn debt in Kvema, which we’ve seen in the last quarter, so that’s been realized, offsetting some of that. And then we also have some commitments in the Forte Monkev portfolio where we have assets under construction. So all in all, great liquidity combined with our available room on our debt facility of around 1,200,000,000, including that. And that gives some very interesting value proposition for growth in the portfolio where we see a lot of interesting opportunities evolving in The Nordics.

So here we have the other side of our call it of the balance sheet, the P and L history. And what you haven’t thank you. What we didn’t see from the financial and the balance sheet development is that we also have done a lot of capital recycling over this journey. So in both 2022, 2023 and 2024, we have done realizations in our portfolio, 2023 and 2024, some hydro transactions. That’s also in 2022 and 2024, showcasing development gains in our portfolio of assets we have had and built under the Cavalry platform.

The underlying financials over this period has increased and it’s these gains, which of course has been important for Clabri that explains the drop in the financials from ’24 to the LTM figures. So if we go into the financials on Q2, we see also the same drop, but that’s also explained by exactly the same reasons as I touched upon on the previous slide. So in Q2, to exemplify, in Q2 twenty twenty four, we had a gain of 109,000,000 related to sale of three hydropower assets sold at about 2x book values. In addition, we received a large settlement from Siemens Gamesa in Q2 twenty twenty four related to a twelve month availability warranty. That’s a normal abnormal large income in Q2 twenty twenty four.

So when we adjust for this, underlying financial has increased. And again, it’s important to note that the Fortu transaction, which was close subsequent to the quarter, greatly shifting portfolio on the Hydro side around a little bit, where now we are controlling shareholder, that does not affect the Q2 financials and will be recorded in Q3 and going forward. Going into the commercial segment, still the value or the income driver for the CloudBerry platform supporting the platform and so we’re able to capitalize on that. The power production has increased compared to the same quarter last year, a 30 something percent increase on the back of higher wind production and the flat hydro production compared to the same quarter last year. More explanations on that in the quarterly report.

We also have increased our average net power price to 0.62 per share, and this explains the majority. So those two increases showcase how the financial underlying financials in the commercial segment has increased compared to the same quarter last year. And again, the favorable realized price compared to the system price of 0.31 per kilowatt hour showcases the attractiveness in our portfolio and that we’re located in the higher price regions. So and you see the same in the out end figures on the right hand side, the drop is explained by the same reasons that we touched upon and underlying financial has increased. We also recorded a gain on NOK 7,000,000 in the related to the Svohaya transaction.

We divested that asset on the same price as we acquired it for from Skogroy. It’s good to showcase the value of that asset as it also is valued on the same principle as the underlying or the overall Skogra transaction supporting the valuation of that transaction, where the majority was reinvested into Clabre at NOK 17 per share. Looking at our other segments, can start out with the project segments. We have some increasing revenues. We have done the divestment of Oderpharma, Volduveln, which Anders touched upon.

And in Q2 twenty twenty four, we also had some revenues and financials from Sundby before it was completed and transferred over to the commercial segments, realizing a gain of around NOK 2,000,000 per megawatt. The backlog has increased, doubled compared to the same quarter last year. And like we touched upon in the previous quarter, expanding the backlog and advancing projects is a significant value driver for this segment as the financial outcome will fluctuate as the realizations will be lumpy in nature, and that’s when you first record anything on the P and L. The asset management from the asset management side, the Forti transaction is of importance, which Anders touched upon, greatly increasing the small scale hydropower under management and also creating a strong platform for growth in that segment. And importantly, automated price curtailments by the BRP has been implemented in the Swedish wind assets and the paving way for future participation in the balancing market, which can be a great value driver for an income generator for assets as the balancing prices are increasing as the more renewable energy is in the mix.

The Corporate segment is more or less in line with the previous quarter, a decrease, so that’s good. And it also has a noncash item related to the warrant cost of SEK 2,000,000, which was booked over the quarter. So with that, Annes, I leave the word over to you for market and summary before we dive into Q and A. So thank you.

Anders Lendborg, CEO, Cloudberry Clean Energy: Thank you, Ole Gustafu, and hi, everyone. Let’s have a look on the price curve. New this time is that we have added our realized power price over the last years from 2022. So you can see that we have historically been delivering prices above the price curve. We find it’s a strong demand for new renewable power.

We think maybe the market has underestimated the power demand and we feel and we get a lot of incoming questions for securing more new renewable and especially driven by the electrification of the industry, but also the transport and logistic sectors. And of course, we have also focused on some of the larger powered land projects in our portfolio where we can see very attractive returns. Going forward, I think we will continue to deliver above the system price and well above the system price and also on the power curve we see here. So summing up before we open up for questions, I think we over the last years have showcased that our platform, our strategy, developing a flexible portfolio and a solid Nordic platform, IPP, is proved to be right. I think we are looking to the future, we’ll see more of the same.

We will stay focused, stay with proven technologies and stay also well financed and be kind of a little bit boring on that side. It’s good to be in this market today with cash and also unused facilities and gives us also the opportunity to move on attractive possibilities. So the strategy is lying there firm. And what we have seen over the last quarters is that we have developed we delivered on our platform on our projects. And I think looking to the future, the focus will be to always try to focus on where we see the best returns.

And as I said, I think new renewable power is a high demand, and we will continue to deliver on adding new renewable power to the portfolio. So thank you so much. And now we will take some of your questions.

Ole Christopher Bragnes, CFO, Cloudberry Clean Energy: I can open up with one question. We’re asked about how the Fort Lauderdale transaction will impact the financial accounts going forward. So that is closed at the very beginning of Q3, and we don’t expect to do any changes in principles or anything like that. So it will have an effect on consolidated financial as we are now will consolidate the Fortellenogy Norway portfolio and also the entire of Fort Avankhav portfolio. The proportionate reporting will be, call it, on the same principles, taking into our share of the ownership and will best reflect the financials of this portfolio going forward.

So we will drop down in ownership of the assets that we have, the hydro assets that we have contributed and increase it with the asset that is producing now higher on and the projects under construction will be reported as we normally do and have that moved to the commercial segment as they are complete. So that was that question. Do we have any other question coming in, Anish?

Anders Lendborg, CEO, Cloudberry Clean Energy: We have a Nezhed question I can comment on. There’s a question here concerning Nezhed, just a short recap. Nezhed is the large solar project we have in DK1, where we have a permit for two thirty two megawatts of solar and developed as a standalone solar project. We decided to not push that forward, but to take a step back and look at how we can redesign Ness Herder to be a much more profitable project for Calabria and our shareholders. So we are currently working

We will continue to have a solar in that project, but to also add BES and hopefully also win to that project. And we have also looked at the off take side there. So we could be looking at the hybrid project where we possibly also have an option for making a powered land and in that way also increasing the returns. So we will continue to develop it and get back to that in a later stage, but there will not be any FID on that project now in 2025. Thank you so much and thank you for listening in and have a very nice day.

Bye.

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