Earnings call transcript: Hexicon AB’s Q2 2025 focus on efficiency amid liquidity constraints

Hexicon AB’s Q2 2025 earnings call highlighted the company’s strategic focus on operational efficiency and liquidity management amid constrained financial conditions. According to InvestingPro data, the company’s financial health score stands at a weak 1.17, underscoring these challenges. The Swedish renewable energy firm, with a market capitalization of $7.53M, is actively pursuing discussions with lenders to address its credit facility needs. Hexicon’s stock experienced a notable rise of 8.26% following the call, closing at $0.24, reflecting investor optimism about its ongoing projects and technology innovation in the floating offshore wind market.

Key Takeaways

• Hexicon is concentrating on operational efficiency and managing liquidity constraints.
• The company is advancing its floating offshore wind technology, with positive results from integrated load analysis.
• Hexicon has divested two Italian projects, reducing its project portfolio capacity.
• The global floating offshore wind market is expanding, with emerging opportunities in the UK, France, South Korea, and Japan.
• Hexicon’s stock rose by 8.26% post-earnings call.

Company Performance

Hexicon is navigating financial challenges by focusing on operational efficiency and strategic project divestments. The company has reduced its project portfolio following the Swedish government’s decision to decline 13 Baltic Sea projects and the sale of two Italian projects. Despite these setbacks, Hexicon retains a net ownership of approximately 7 gigawatts across various countries. The firm continues to explore commercialization strategies for its floating offshore wind technology, which has shown promising results in integrated load analysis.

Financial Highlights

• Liquidity remains constrained, with ongoing discussions with lenders about credit facility solutions.
• Hexicon is not actively pursuing new projects, instead focusing on maturing its existing portfolio.
• The company has divested two Italian projects, impacting its project portfolio capacity.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings call, Hexicon’s stock price increased by 8.26%, closing at $0.24. This surge reflects positive investor sentiment towards the company’s efforts to manage liquidity and advance its technology in the growing global floating offshore wind market. The stock’s movement is notable within its 52-week range of $0.13 to $0.55.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Hexicon is focusing on three primary areas: projects, technology, and financing. The company aims to mature its existing project portfolio, maintain the technical value of its assets, and explore liquidity solutions. InvestingPro analysts anticipate sales growth in the current year, with revenue projected to increase by 18.47%. Hexicon’s guidance for future quarters includes potential commercialization pathways for its technology and strategic project divestments. For comprehensive analysis and detailed forecasts, investors can access Hexicon’s Pro Research Report, part of InvestingPro’s coverage of over 1,400 stocks.

Executive Commentary

Markus Thorn, CEO of Hexicon, emphasized the company’s strategic focus, stating, "Liquidity remains constrained," highlighting the importance of ongoing discussions with lenders. Thorn also noted, "We are not at the moment focusing on adding new projects... we are very much focusing on the existing portfolio," underscoring Hexicon’s commitment to optimizing its current assets.

Risks and Challenges

• Liquidity constraints may impact Hexicon’s ability to fund new projects and innovations.
• The decline of 13 Baltic Sea projects by the Swedish government reduces Hexicon’s project portfolio capacity.
• The US market is currently facing challenges, potentially affecting Hexicon’s growth prospects.
• The company’s ability to secure new partnerships and investors for projects like Mungo Barang remains uncertain.
• The finalization of floater technology for the South Korean market is still in progress, posing potential delays.

Hexicon’s Q2 2025 earnings call underscores its strategic focus on efficiency and innovation amid financial challenges. The company’s commitment to advancing its floating offshore wind technology and managing liquidity constraints has resonated positively with investors, as reflected in its recent stock price increase.

Full transcript - Hexicon AB (HEXI) Q2 2025:

Markus Thorn, CEO, Hexagon: Hello. Welcome, everybody. I’m here today to present some updates from Hexagon’s operations during the 2025. My name is Markus Thorn, and I’m the CEO of Hexagon. And what I’ll go through today is first provide some context to Floating Offshore Wind, a market update and then on to Hexagon’s operations during the quarter, and I will be ending with looking ahead.

So let’s get to it. If we start with floating offshore wind, and I’ve shown this picture before, but I think it’s relevant to to frame it in, especially for new listeners. So it really comes from a need for more renewable power and more offshore wind than what shallow waters allow for. If we look at waters on a global perspectives, more than 80% are deep. With deep, we meet somewhere deeper than 80 60 meters.

Sorry. In terms of maturity, though, it’s a vast difference. So onshore turbines on land, there’s somewhere around 275,000 turbines installed. Offshore on the seabed, so bottom fixed, somewhere around 13,000. On floating structures, they are only to date somewhere around 50 full scale turbines.

So it’s a complete maturity difference. With that said, we’re right now in this transitioning phase with many gigawatt projects underway to be built over the next few years and several countries that are undertaking auctions for floating offshore wind. So we will see a massive growth of floating offshore wind. Lastly, some of the key arguments for floating offshore wind is that you can be more flexible in where you site them. You’re not constrained by shallow water areas.

You can optimize based on wind location. You can build them a lot larger and out there, winds are more stable than where than closer to shore. So with that said, recently there has been quite a lot of movement in the market. We have seen signs of recovery in terms of global offshore wind with not the least several auctions have been announced in countries both in Europe and over in Asia. In The UK, have recently launched their seventh contract for differential allocation round.

This has a ceiling price of £271 per megawatt hour. But on top of that, it’s also improved certain conditions, perhaps most importantly, increasing the duration of the CFD from fifteen to twenty years. In France, they’ve just recently initiated a consultation process for their next auction, AO10. They’re expected to allocate somewhere eight to nine gigawatt of offshore wind that is both fixed and floating. Over in South Korea, where we are very active with our Mumubarang project, the newly elected president has really taken some steps to increase the focus on the renewable transition.

And a few of these examples is that there’s a newly formed department of climate and energy. Energy was formally under department with several other topics as well, so it’s a more clear focus on the energy transition. Certain renewable targets have already been increased. So we do see the market really from a shaky period of political turmoil. We are seeing it stabilizing and really becoming more favorable from an investor perspective, not the least.

In Japan, there’s a new very recent law from June that opens up Japan’s exclusive economic zone for the development of offshore wind. It’s not exclusive to floating offshore wind, but it will be mainly floating offshore wind due to the deep waters that surround Japan. Whilst some progress here and some signs of recovery over in Europe here and in Asia, we’re not really seeing the same thing currently over The US. Trump administration certainly caused some issues for certain projects there where we’ve seen a lot of companies facing challenges and write downs taking effect. But with that said, if you look at the markets where we are active, which is in Europe and Asia and foremost, we’re certainly seeing positive signals.

Lastly, looking at the forecast, the global floating pipeline has increased from two forty four to two sixty six gigawatts. So this is the long term forecast that’s gone up slightly since last period. The second quarter for ourselves, a lot of work, not the least. At the beginning of the quarter, we concluded the transaction of two projects that were sold. So two of our Italian projects within a portfolio where we still have five projects active was sold to Oxan Energy and Ink Investments.

This was announced back end of the first quarter. The transaction as such was closed on April 4 in the second quarter. We held our general meeting on May 7 and which, of course, I would hope to be able to share some conclusions at this stage, but we’ve not yet. Our current revolving credit facility matured June. We did announce a couple of days before that that we were in talks with lenders.

Those discussions are ongoing. They are very constructive. They are conducted in, you know, good faith and good manner. And I’m really confident that I’ll be able to get back to you with conclusions of those within very short. We are taking a broader approach.

We want to ensure that we are reaching a conclusion that is not just here and now, but it that is something that works in a greater picture and a slightly longer term. So this is what we’re aiming for. I’m confident that we’ll get there within short. And at that time, I will, of course, get back to you with such communication. If we look at our project portfolio developments, there has clearly been a decrease of our capacity if you compare quarter two this year from quarter two last year.

That decrease in our capacity of the portfolio is mainly stemming from two events. The first one is in November when the Swedish government declined 13 projects in the Baltic Sea. Two of them were ours. The second reason is the two Italian projects that were divested, as mentioned here, was closed on April 4. So those are the two reasons for the decrease that we see here.

It’s still a significant portfolio that we’re proud capacity amount is one thing, of course, but it’s also a matter of which projects you have, the quality of them, which market they’re in and how mature they are. And to that effect, it’s a portfolio that we’re proud of, still contains a net ownership of for Hexagon that is somewhere around seven gigawatts, again, some countries in Europe, South Africa and South Korea. And over to South Korea, which remains a key market for Hexagon, the first real core market for a commercial scale project. We’ve been active in Korea since 2018. There’s certainly a lot of things that have happened.

I did mention the new president taking office, which happened on June 3. There is a within the competitive bidding scheme, so their auction process, there’s several things that have been improved and changed over the last few, you know, well, say, months and year. Such examples that it’s been a separate budget and separate auction bidding process for fixed and floating. There’s also separate if projects are majority owned by state owned companies. So several initiatives that have been ongoing.

On top of that, as I did mention in the previous slide, the president that took office on third June have already both established, which is not yet fully organized or put in place with ministers, but still decided upon a new ministry for climate and energy, signaling a clear focus on the energy transition. Certain renewable targets have been turned up. So overall, an increased focus and improved or shortened timeline on the complete and overall energy transition. We think that all this, some clearer policy direction, increased or higher targets, all in all strengthens the investor confidence in South Korea in a time where global markets are certainly somewhat shaky. And this is something that suits us very well, of course.

Mungo Barang is a project that is large gate. It’s mature. It’s at a stage where we are seeking investors and partners into it. This process has definitely taken a hit from the political turmoil that has been in the country for the last six months. We’re now seeing things stabilize.

We’re picking up speed in that process again, and that will be, going forward, a key priority for the project. In addition to that part of the search process, we’re very much focusing on getting the project auction ready. So prepare for the upcoming auction. Next one that we are able to potentially meet, we haven’t made those decisions yet, would be in the first half of next year. Going along with that, there’s a lot of supply chain engagements now to firm up the cost base surrounding the project and a lot of stakeholder engagements, not the least with the fisheries, where we continue to make progress.

And we’ve recently signed an additional MOU with a fisheries committee. In this time, it was with the Uju Fishery Committee, just neighboring Ulsan. If we then look ahead, where is our focus? And I’ll categorize this in three areas, projects, technology and financing. On projects, we are not at the moment focusing on adding new projects to it.

We’re very much focusing on the existing portfolio, mature increased value of core projects. Certainly, a focus on divestment of selected projects where several processes are ongoing. And as always, we are continuously improving the way we work and operate and how we develop projects. On the technology side, it’s very much about maintaining and managing that technical asset value. We have been as of recently in collaboration with turbine suppliers.

We have gone through extensive so called integrated load analysis. So engineering work where we do it jointly with a turbine supplier to ensure that the foundation meets all the requirements from a turbine supplier. These results have come into the most of it, the lion’s share of the results are in, and they are really positive confirming the functionality of our foundation and IP. To go with that, we are, of course, needing to commercialize it. So how do we take it from here to something that works that we can confirm and demonstrate to actually achieving it being used in real large scale projects and there through making revenue.

The step there in between is definitely a demonstrator. We are looking at ways on how to go forward with the Twin Hub project. That one itself had by the time we won, the first ever CFD auction in The UK that had an allocated pot for floating wind, price levels were very different than what they are today. So we are really revisiting that and spending a lot of time on how to go forward with that. Regardless of TwinHub or not TwinHub, what we are spending a lot of time as well is how do we if we go forward with TwinHub and in what manner, and if not, how do we mature and commercialize our own IP?

Basically, how do we establish a route to market for that IP? And as Hexagon has always done from inception, whether it comes or relates to projects or technology, we’ve always adopted in partnership models. And this is what how I see even the technology going forward as well. So hopefully, that will be something that will come back to you as well and announce in the not too distant future how we partner up in technology, what that route to market plan looks like. Lastly, on the financing side, we are definitely looking at our operational efficiency.

How do we achieve more with less? Liquidity remains strained, so we are looking at ways to improve that situation. A clear focus again on divestments, the core and the base of our revenue going forward. Alongside with that, not excluding additional means to establish and ensure sufficient operational runway for Hexagon to achieve, not the least, the bigger divestments that are upcoming. So with that said, I’ll now pass over.

We have taken any questions from beforehand. So what I’ll do is that I will read out a question and then answer it. And to the first one, you communicated in June just before the expiration of the RCF that you would return with new information. Nearly two months have now passed and it’s remained quiet. What is the plan going forward?

I did allude to this early in the presentation, but just to emphasize that, yes, it’s taken a bit of time more than I had anticipated, but key for me is that we achieve a solution that is as good as possible and long term so that it achieves something valuable for Hexagon. To this effect, I can confidently say that that’s the exact type of discussions that are ongoing in good faith with lenders, and they’re being very regular. So I can’t commit to a date, but we will be able to return to you all with a communication on this topic within short. Second question. What is the current status of the company’s liquidity?

Based on your report, it appears that funds may be running out soon. Yes. Liquidity remains constrained. I think, though, the key here again is that we believe there are solutions in place. It’s a key area of assessment for myself and the board, which we meet at a very regular interval.

We, at all times, assess our situation, what processes are ongoing, what is the likelihood, how do we assess that in the view going forward in terms of what we need. And currently, we believe we are in a good place to achieve onwards operations for not only the short term. Again, cannot disclose anything at this stage where we are, but let me get back to you very soon again on those topics, not the least onwards liquidity. Next question. What are the next steps for Mungo Barang?

You previously mentioned that you’re seeking a partner and or investor. What progress have been made? And yes, just to add to the slide and what I said about Munroe earlier, there has been a period of very little progress on this front due to the political turmoil in the country. And I’ll give you a concrete example. International investors that we have been talking to that showed an interest, they more or less said, yes, this is an interesting project, but we’ll pause our engagement until that’s settled, so until there’s a new precedent in place.

While some of the local, not the least, state owned companies that we have been speaking to, they were unable to make a decision. They cannot make investment decisions whilst there is no precedent in place. So we were very much affected by all this. It took us a shock at the time when we had just come out of a nine, ten month process regulatory to meet all the requirements from the Korean state to take over the ownership from Shell. And then the political mess happened with martial law and onwards.

So we are now I would say, that settle, we’re definitely now ramping up speed on that process. So no results as of today, but we have a situation where we can progress it now again. Thank God. Is the next question. What is the status of your technology development?

Will you continue with the pilot project in The UK? If not, where do you intend to test your technology? So, again, as mentioned there, we we I can’t say for sure how we will go forward with TwinHub. Markets has changed very much since we won that CFD in 2022. Prices have gone up significantly, not the least offshore wind turbines, somewhere in the order of 40% over the last two years, just as one example.

So we need to see how we can make that work. How do we mature our technology? How do we get it demonstrated? If not TwinHub, I can’t hear now say where. Certainly, other opportunities.

Equally important is that we find the right partners and the right backers for this technology long term because technology is a long term play. So even projects are but if you compare it to projects, technology is even a longer term play because there’s no way getting around it, But you need that demonstrator in full scale before you can achieve commercialization. Next question. Which floater technology will you be using in South Korea? This has not been decided yet.

It will not be our own twin win. The reason for it is this is a multibillion dollar investment. We need third party investors into it. We cannot reasonably expect that to happen based on technology that is unproven. So we’re returning the technology in parallel.

Within the project, we have and for several years actually, not the least jointly with Shell, we’ve gone through a down selection process from 30 odd something technologies down to a short list of two at the moment. We’ve not made that final decision. We will make it, you know, at a timely manner when it’s needed, preferably after partners on board. But thorough work with dual processes engineering for a period of time to get to that down selection, confirming that the shortlist of two works not compatible with relevant turbines, that’s been undertaken. The decision, however, has not been made yet.

I can say also both those technologies are single termite technologies with vertical towers. Last question I we received beforehand here is, when do you expect to receive the remaining milestone payments from the Italian projects that were divested recently? So that sale and transaction is combined of an upfront payment and milestone payments. And the milestone payments are split across potentially several milestones. The first one is completion of the EIA, so environmental impact assessment.

That lies in time somewhere a year from now, somewhere next year. Then after that, you can we can either get additional milestone payments and potentially the biggest ones at either offtakes, so when offtakes is confirmed. If it’s not offtake confirmed within a typical auction, it could be later all the way up until FID. So between a year from now and somewhere two to four years after that is when we expect milestone payments, two to three different ones in time. With that said, that was the last question I had received.

I’d like to thank you all very much for listening. And as said on a few topics, really trust that I’ll get back to you within short with some more news. Thank you very much for listening.

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