Earnings call transcript: Ctek AB sees Q3 2025 revenue miss, stock drops 5%

Ctek AB reported its Q3 2025 earnings, revealing a revenue shortfall against market expectations. The company’s stock price reacted negatively, dropping 5.15% in pre-market trading. According to InvestingPro data, Ctek’s stock has fallen significantly over the last five years, though it has shown strong momentum recently with a 108.67% price return over the past six months. Despite challenges, Ctek AB remains focused on future growth with upcoming product launches and strategic market initiatives.

Key Takeaways

• Q3 2025 revenue fell short of forecasts, impacting stock performance.
• Organic growth was negative, but the Consumer division showed strength.
• Upcoming product launches and market expansion plans are in place.
• The EV charging market remains sluggish, affecting overall results.

Company Performance

Ctek AB faced a challenging Q3 2025, with turnover reaching SEK 212 million. Organic growth was negative at -1%, primarily affected by the discontinued General Motors business. However, excluding this, organic growth was 4%. The Consumer division demonstrated resilience with 12% organic growth, while the Professional division experienced a 27% decline in net sales.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: SEK 212 million, below the forecast of SEK 221 million.
• Gross margin: Over 59%.
• Adjusted EBITDA: $32 million, with a 15% margin.
• Net debt ratio: 2, well below the target of 3.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Ctek AB’s actual revenue of SEK 212 million missed the forecast of SEK 221 million. This shortfall represents a significant miss that contributed to the negative market reaction. The earnings per share (EPS) forecast was 0.22, but actual EPS figures were not disclosed in the call summary.

Market Reaction

Ctek AB’s stock price fell by 5.15% in pre-market trading following the earnings announcement. This drop reflects investor disappointment with the revenue miss. The stock is currently trading closer to its 52-week low of 11.22, far from the 52-week high of 18.84.

Outlook & Guidance

Ctek AB is optimistic about its future, with plans to launch new products such as the Series 1 with Wi-Fi and the NXT series in Q4 2025. The company is targeting $50 million in EVSE sales by 2026 and is focusing on expanding in the UK and German markets. Despite the current slowdown in the EV charging market, Ctek AB sees potential in low voltage products for seldom-used vehicles.

Executive Commentary

CEO Henrik Fagrenius emphasized the company’s strong relationship with Amazon: "We are growing with Amazon as a customer, and we have been growing with them for over five years now." He also noted the potential in the low voltage market: "We see that the market for our low voltage product is mainly on seldom-used vehicles, like sport vehicles, like boats."

Risks and Challenges

• Supply chain disruptions could impact production and delivery schedules.
• The EV charging market’s current sluggishness may affect growth prospects.
• Competitive pressures from other market players could challenge market share.
• Economic uncertainties in key markets like Europe and the US.

Q&A

During the Q&A session, analysts inquired about the impact of Amazon order patterns on Q3 sales, which were affected by $20-30 million. Questions also focused on the expected scaling of new product launches in 2026 and the ongoing challenges in the UK market.

Full transcript - Ctek AB (CTEK) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Welcome to CTEK Q3 Report 2025. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing #KEY5 on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO Henrik Fagrenius and CFO Thom Mathisen. Please go ahead.

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: Thank you very much, operator, and a warm welcome to CTEK’s Q3 earnings call. Today’s presentators are myself, Henrik Fagrenius, and beside me, I have our CFO, Thom Mathisen. Before we start, I do, as usual, take a short introduction of CTEK. CTEK was founded more than 25 years ago in Vikmanshyttan by the entrepreneur Bengt Wahlqvist, who was the inventor of the first pulse charging charger. We have three integrated centers of excellence in Falun, Norrköping, and Shenzhen, where we do all the R&D, testing, and quality. We have mainly two technologies, and in those technologies, we have different sub-segments. We have the consumer, client brand, professional, and power solutions for low voltage. In the EVSE, we have destination charging, client brand, load balancing, and service and support. We go to the market through two divisions: our consumer division that is focused on retail and retailers, importers, and partners.

We have our professional division that is focusing on B2B business, where we have our client brand business and also our EVSE business. We have been chosen by the best customers. We have more than 50 premium sports car manufacturers as our client brand business. As you can see on the picture, Lamborghini is one of them powered by CTEK. Who are using our products? It’s a lot of different customer segments that are using our products, all from motorcycle cars, sports cars, workshop, commercial vehicles, boats, RV vehicles. For our EVSE business, it’s parking operators, charge point operators, and others. As you can see, our main segment today is the chargers, and they are covering most of our different consumers. Also, boosters are going to be covered by the same. We have power solutions overlapping, and we have the EVSE for charge point operators and parking operators.

As you might know, we announced our financial goals in May this year, and we have done this illustration to show the way forward toward our goals. We have covered the three first steps. During Q4, we will also be able to cover the next step, launch of new products and product categories. With that, we are then digging into the third quarter. Our turnover was SEK 212 million, organic growth of -1%. However, if we exclude the General Motors business that we have discontinued, it was an organic growth of 4%. The growth was mainly coming from the low voltage segment, which also then helped us to achieve a very high gross margin of over 59%. The adjusted EBITDA landed on $32 million, which is just above 15%. The cash flow was minus $19 million, and we have a net debt ratio of 2.

The key takeaways are that the low voltage segment is continuing to grow. There was a lot of sales to Amazon in the quarter. They have changed their purchasing pattern a bit. They are now taking direct deliveries from Asia, which means that they are ordering a bit in advance. That will have an impact in Q4. We are growing with Amazon as a customer, and we have been growing with them for over five years now. We are growing also this year, but there is a little bit of a different pattern in their ordering. We also see good traction in our client brand. When it comes to our EV charging, it’s a slower market, but we have a very good offer there, and we get good customer feedback, and we are also launching new products.

When it comes to cash flow, Q3 is not our best quarter when it comes to cash flow. This quarter, we also had a late payment from one of our big customers of $20 million that came the 2nd of October instead of the week before that impacted the quarter. We see that, and we will come back to more details for the cash flow. We are also on plan when it comes to our upcoming product launches, and we are increasing the nearby addressable markets significantly. In the fourth quarter, we will introduce Series 1 with Wi-Fi function, the NXT series, and of course, our premium boosters. With that, I hand it over to you, Thom.

Thom Mathisen, CFO, CTEK: Yes, thank you, Henrik. To dig a little bit deeper into the financials for quarter three, we can see in the Consumer division that stands for about three quarters of our turnover. We have higher net sales than the same quarter last year, 12% organic growth. As Henrik said, partly related to a different purchasing pattern from Amazon, but still good sales. We continue to have strong and high EBITDA levels in this division of about 41%. For the Professional division, which obviously then stands for one quarter of our turnover, we see a different pattern. It’s a net sales decrease of around 27%. This comes partly from the ceased collaboration with General Motors, but also from the lower activity in the EVSE market. EBITDA is on a zero level.

I think it’s important to notice that in these numbers, we have taken a hit of SEK 2 million related to retroactive correction of import duties in Europe. Without that, we would have continued to have a positive EBITDA margin of around 4%. Coming then to cash flow and CapEx, as Henrik mentioned, not the strongest quarter for us, and that is a seasonal pattern that we have seen in recent years that in quarter three, we usually have negative cash, but it comes back in quarter four. In this particular quarter three, we had on top of the normal seasonality also the changed Amazon pattern with strong sales to Amazon during quarter three, but they have also longer payment terms than the average. On top of that, we had a big customer with some late payments that also impacted the cash flow in the quarter.

We expect, as previous years, to have a positive net cash in quarter four going forward. CapEx, as you see in the graph below, we continue, as we have communicated before, to go back to more normal levels. We should invest in CapEx for our ceased investment in new products. We should have a rather high, but not as the peak we had in 2022, 2023. We are now back to more normal levels. As Henrik also mentioned, we still get out new products that we are launching now in quarter four. We continue to keep the net debt ratio on 2. This is well below the financial targets of 3. With that, I hand it back to you, Henrik.

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: Thank you, Thom. To summarize the quarter, we took a big step towards our financial goal when it comes to profitability. That was thanks to good sales in the low voltage segment, and we had a record high gross margin. We are also looking now forward to the upcoming product launches and the increase in the addressable markets, which will help us to also reach our goal when it comes to turnover for the next coming years. The highlights for the coming quarter are the Series 1 with Wi-Fi introduction, the NXT series introduction, and the premium boosters introduction that will come at the end of the year and have significant growth in 2026. With that, operator, we hand over to question and answers.

Conference Operator: If you wish to ask a question, please dial #KEY5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial #KEY6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Tom Gwinchard from Pareto. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Just a few questions from my end. Starting off on the Amazon delivery and order patterns, can you quantify that to some extent, the impact in Q3 and expected impact in Q4 here on a year-on-year or sequential basis?

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: Yeah, it is a bit hard to quantify it for Q4 because we don’t know how Q4 will end. It’s a lot about depending on how Cyber Monday and Black Friday and those events are going. We have seen that we are growing with Amazon so far. I would say that the impact for Q3 of the year would have been $20 to $30 million in pre-poned and a majority of that in Q3.

All right. Perfect. Just on the sort of timing on the new product launches, how fast can you get them to market once the product is launched? Do you have any indicative sort of lag between product launch and revenues?

There we are a little bit dependent on our partners and how quick they can get it into their stores. We will start the selling as we speak of the NXT series, and the booster will then be in December. The Chargestorm Connected 3 iFresh will be very late in this year. We do not foresee any major impact in Q4, but then ramping up beginning of next year.

All right. Gradual scaling throughout 2026. Do you have any volume indications on sort of year-end 2026 or full year 2027?

No.

To use as a baseline?

We do not do any guides to guiding there.

All right. Perfect. That was all for me. Thanks.

Thank you, Thom.

Conference Operator: The next question comes from Sophia Sorling from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you. Hi, Henrik and Thom.

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: Hi, Sophia.

My first question then, if we look at the steps to your financial targets, you mentioned that you expect $50 million sales within EVSE, both supported by the UK and Germany markets during 2026. My question is first on the UK market. It has been quite challenging if you look one year back for you. How has that progressed during the quarter? Have you seen any improvements, all but at low levels? Have you seen any improvements in the UK market that actually support the sales into 2026?

It’s still a tough market situation. We have seen a little bit of stronger customer interest in our products. We’ve seen customers coming back to us. I think it’s still a tough market situation. The feedback that we have received from our customers is that they like the products very much. It’s a robust product with very high uptime. I think when we see the market turn, we will also see some orders coming in also in the UK.

In Germany, have you already planned for, and have you any feedback from potential customers ahead in Germany when you will launch a specific product in that market?

We have started the discussion, of course, with our pan-European existing customers. That is our goal to start with them also in Germany. As I mentioned, we have received good feedback on our product, but they are, of course, eagerly waiting for the products to come out physically.

Okay. Great. You talked a lot about the new product category of premium boosters, but what about power solutions? Can you elaborate a little bit on that phase one step?

Yep. We are heavily in work with that. We are now in the development phase of phase one of the power solutions, and that is planned later for 2026.

Okay. Is that a new communication from your side that you’re planning later on 2026 for power solutions?

No. Power solutions, if you look at the stair that we have made, it is there in 2026. I would also say that already in January, February, we are launching some products in the power solutions segment, our iChargers. A more broadened product portfolio will be available later in 2026.

Okay. Great. That was all for me. Thank you.

Thank you.

Conference Operator: As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial #KEY5 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Tom Gwinchard from Pareto. Please go ahead.

Thank you. A follow-up on power solutions. Just wondering how closely related are your sort of projected volumes in Europe? If you look at RV sales and also in the maritime sector, the market development there, how closely tied is it to new build in your outlook and estimates here?

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: I would say that 50/50, 50% towards new build and 50% toward the aftermarket. The aftermarket is, of course, a very big portion of that. I think it’s about 15 million RVs registered and 50 million boats registered.

In terms of geographical split here, primarily Europe-focused or any specific geographies you’re targeting there?

We have said that we are targeting Europe as priority number one. We are also targeting Australia, since we are strong in Australia. After that, also U.S.

The market in Australia has picked up quite significantly post-COVID, if I’m not mistaken, right?

Yeah.

Relatively flat to muted new build demand in Europe and quite weak in the U.S. Is that a correct picture?

Yeah.

All right. Perfect. Thanks.

Conference Operator: The next question comes from Matthias Ehrenborg from Redeye. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. I was just curious to hear about the reason behind the improved profitability in the professional segment in this quarter, despite the lower sales volumes. I note that other external expenses were quite low in the quarter on a group level. I was just wondering if there’s any correlation here.

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: Yeah. Q3 is, of course, a good quarter when it comes to OpEx because we have a lot of the people on vacation. We have normally a little bit lower OpEx in Q3. When it comes to the professional segment, I would say that there is a higher share of low voltage products. Also, we have better margins in our newly launched EVSE charger Chargestorm Connected 3.

Okay. Just going back to the other external expenses being down a few million year over year, I suppose it still had the holiday effects last year. Is there anything in particular that affects this quarter, or how could we view that?

Thom Mathisen, CFO, CTEK: No, I would say this quarter, it’s a little bit how this vacation period spread over the quarter as well. It is also a little bit the reason we have still continued to take down some of our OpEx expenses, less of consultants during the year, etc. That also has an impact on the OpEx for the quarter.

Okay. Excellent. Also, looking at your geographical sales split, we note that the DACH region was quite strong in this quarter, whereas the rest of Europe was quite soft. I suppose the former was driven by Amazon, if that’s correct. What is the reason for the rest of Europe being relatively weak?

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: You’re right. The DACH region is, among others, Amazon is strong in the DACH region. The rest of Europe, I would say that we have seen gradually better in Scandinavia if we take from the start of the year. It is still not a super market out there. People are a bit hesitant. We see Scandinavia is coming back. They had a weak start of the year, but they are coming back. I would say the rest of Europe is scattered.

Okay. No major accounts being the driver here, so to speak?

No, no.

Okay. Excellent. I also just wanted to get back to the premium boosters launch. Maybe it has been answered already, but do you expect a gradual ramp-up in sales, or do you expect an inventory build-up from your customers’ perspective going into Q4, for example?

Now, since this is a new segment for us, I would say that it will be a gradual ramp-up. It will take some time for the customers to test them and get them out and get end-consumer feedback, etc. It will be a gradual ramp-up.

Okay. Going to the EVSE sales in the quarter, I know you often emphasize that it’s more driven by infrastructure investments and new build rather than EV sales in specific quarters. Although I suppose these should correlate over time, of course. What are your current main near-term challenges, would you say, for the EVSE segment?

As I stated, I think we have a very good product out there. We have a very good and solid offering to our customers, and they seem to appreciate that. We have got some awards for the best uptime. I would say we need people to start building more garages and refurbish existing garages. It is really that which needs to start. Of course, we are looking forward to opening up Germany as a big market and also continue our efforts in the UK.

Okay. Thanks for that. Just a final question from my side. We’ve seen several big car OEMs recently pushing their EV targets in time and also increasing R&D spending on hybrids and even combustion engines. What is your view on the current state of the low voltage market if you also consider a short-term perspective and a long-term perspective?

Short-term and long-term, it’s very positive. We see that the market for our low voltage product is mainly on seldom used vehicles, like sport vehicles, like boats, etc. Of course, the growth of hybrid is also positive for us because they use both the EV charger and the low voltage charger, which is also the same for complete EV vehicles. I don’t see that we are so vulnerable to those trends. We have product offering for whichever direction it will go into. We are certain that there will be long-term demand for our low voltage products.

Do you see a weak EVSE market being positive for your low voltage market in a long-term perspective, or can both markets coexist in a long-term perspective?

Yeah, both can coexist. There is also a 12-volt battery in EV cars. Both markets can coexist. I wouldn’t say that one or the other is better for us.

Okay, thank you. That was all for me.

Thank you.

Conference Operator: There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Henrik Fagrenius, CEO, CTEK: Thank you very much for listening in, and looking forward to hearing from you soon.

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