Earnings call transcript: Netel Holding AB Q3 2025 sees stock drop amid weak earnings

Published 24/10/2025, 10:24

Netel Holding AB's third-quarter earnings report revealed a challenging period marked by a decline in sales and profitability. The company, with a market capitalization of SEK 23.21 million, reported total sales of SEK 654 million, a 17.8% decrease from the previous year, and an adjusted EBITDA of -SEK 53 million. These results fell short of market expectations, contributing to an 8.87% drop in the company's stock price to SEK 4.51 in pre-market trading. According to InvestingPro analysis, the stock is currently trading near its 52-week low, with a significant 77% decline over the past year. The company attributed the disappointing performance to significant margin write-downs and lower project volumes.

Key Takeaways

Netel's Q3 sales dropped by 17.8% year-over-year.
Stock price fell by 8.87% following the earnings announcement.
Margin write-downs and lower volumes impacted profitability.
Strategic expansion and cost-saving measures are underway.
Stronger cash flows are anticipated in Q4.

Company Performance

Netel Holding AB faced a tough third quarter, with sales and profitability significantly impacted by external and internal challenges. The company's performance contrasts with the broader industry trends of electrification and digitalization, which have generally supported growth in related sectors. The company is focusing on strategic expansions and cost-saving measures to navigate these challenges.

Financial Highlights

Revenue: SEK 654 million (-17.8% YoY)
Adjusted EBITDA: -SEK 53 million
Margin write-downs: SEK 59 million
Cash balance: SEK 150 million
Total available funds: SEK 360 million

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Netel expects a full-year 2025 revenue of approximately SEK 3 billion, with an EBITDA margin guidance of 1.5% to 2%. Analyst consensus tracked by InvestingPro suggests a sales decline in the current year, with earnings per share forecast at -SEK 0.02 for 2025. The company is optimistic about stronger cash flows in the fourth quarter and anticipates growth and margin improvement in 2026. However, the focus remains on profitability over volume, with long-term financing solutions being a priority.

Executive Commentary

CEO Jeanette Reuterskiöld emphasized the company's commitment to restoring profitability, stating, "We have a clear plan to improve profitability." She also highlighted the healthy underlying markets driven by electrification and digitalization, adding, "Our underlying markets are healthy and driven by the mega trends of electrification, digitalization, and the modernization of critical infrastructure."

Risks and Challenges

Margin write-downs in subsidiaries continue to pose financial challenges.
Lower project volumes and competitive pricing pressure in the telecom market.
The need to secure long-term financing solutions before year-end.
Strategic divestment of UK operations amid ongoing restructuring.
High dependency on subcontractors affecting operational flexibility.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts questioned the margin write-downs and project profitability challenges. The company confirmed obtaining a waiver from lenders in October and emphasized its focus on securing long-term financing solutions before the year-end.

Netel Holding AB's Q3 2025 performance highlights the challenges the company faces in a competitive and evolving market. While strategic initiatives and cost-saving measures are in place, the company's ability to navigate these headwinds will be critical in shaping its future trajectory.

Full transcript - Netel Holding AB (NETEL) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Participants are able to ask questions by dialing #KEY-5 on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO and President Jeanette Reuterskiöld and CFO Fredrik Helenius. Please go ahead.

Jeanette Reuterskiöld, President and CEO, Netel: Good morning and welcome to our presentation of our Q3 results. My name is Jeanette Reuterskiöld and I'm President and CEO of Netel. With me, I have Fredrik Helenius, our CFO. During today's presentation, we will first go through how we see our market position and our strategic shift we have made with new customers and new geographies in the countries we operate, with focus in Sweden and Norway. I will go through why our profitability has fallen so much during this quarter. After that, I will go through all the activities and measures we have started and intend to continue working on in 2026 to improve our margins. We give our indication for 2025 and 2026, and as usual, go into more detail in our financial figures together with Fredrik. We conclude by going through our financing situation and then a short summary.

Okay, then we move on to describe our market and our position. Our underlying markets are healthy and driven by the megatrends of electrification, digitalization, and the modernization of critical infrastructure. We also have a strong offering, which is reflected in our constantly high order backlog of over SEK 3.8 billion. Our business is characterized by long-term customer relationships, and we have worked for many years with some of Scandinavia's largest telecom operators, such as Tele2 and Telenor, and energy companies such as E.ON and Vattenfall. A year ago, we made a strategic decision to adjust our strategy and expand geographically in Sweden, Norway, and Germany. At the same time, we stated that we would seek new customer segments, particularly industrial clients within the power segment. This has led, among other things, to our expansion into the southern parts of Norway with the new customer Glitronet.

In Sweden, for example, we have won a major framework agreement with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration. We are closely monitoring our customers' investment appetite, and we have noted a decrease in the investment volume in the telecom market, which we can adapt to more easily with our flexible business model with a higher proportion of subcontractors. On October 1, Netel announced that write-downs in three subsidiaries and decreased sales of around SEK 400 million are affecting Netel's result for 2025. The assessments from that communication remain unchanged. Full-year revenue is expected to amount to approximately SEK 3 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 1.5% to 2%. The remaining operations, which account for more than 90% of Netel's revenue, are still expected to deliver an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 4% to 5% for the full year, despite reduced volumes due to market changes.

For 2026, we expect to achieve growth and margin improvement for the full year of 2026, given our cost-saving measures during this year and next year, and the market conditions we see today. Our order backlog for 2026 per September was around SEK 2 billion. As I said earlier, Netel has continued to build up and increased our order backlog to SEK 3.8 billion during this quarter, but most of that volume will come next year and beyond. The reason for reduced profitability during the quarter is the identification of overvalued projects by former management ahead of project completion in three of our subsidiaries acquired in 2021 and 2022. Lower volumes of approximately SEK 400 million than expected due to a competitive market situation and our focus on profitability in procurements rather than growth.

More projects than expected are still in the startup phase, and also the start has been postponed to 2026 for a number of projects, especially within telecom. We also did not achieve the saving from the business system and the new organization in Norway that we had anticipated earlier this year. We are now turning over every stone to restore profitability. Following the communication on October 1, we have received questions about how our business works and why results fluctuate between quarters. It is important to understand that our income statement is based on successive profit recognition, where income and costs and therefore the margin are distributed over the project period. Four times a year, we go through all the projects in detail and update the forecast regarding the project margins.

It is on these occasions and before the end of the project that adjustments can be made to our results. The forecast adjustments immediately affect the income statement through changes in profit recognition, and if a write-down is made by, for example, 2% of margin, it will, at this point, affect the entire project's previously reported earnings, which can have these major consequences in an individual quarter, even if the projects themselves have a profit margin that is in line with our financial targets. As we have a product-based business, our earnings and cash flow will continue to fluctuate between quarters, and it is important to see our development over longer periods of time to get the true picture. The nature of our business also means that product management, risk control, and uniform working methods in tenders, follow-up, and forecasting are of paramount importance to us.

These are areas that have been and continue to be central to me and my management team. We have therefore increased the transparency of the subsidiaries, consolidation of invested in reporting and governance tools, and introduced new procedures for central review and approval of tenders. This work will be further accelerated in connection with the consolidation of the subsidiaries within the group. Above here, you can see an example for how a write-down of margin with 2% in a product, with, for example, a volume of $200 million, with a previous estimated margin of 10%, gives a negative estimate effect at this time of $4 million, even though the product delivered a margin of 8%. We have clear time-bound measures to achieve our profitability target. We are now executing on a cost-saving program and needed measures under this and next year.

These measures differ slightly between the divisions, and I will go through that later on. The programs were introduced internally with time-specific milestones. We have resolved on a saving program totaling $40 to $50 million. $25 million of that cost save will generate full effect under 2026. Of this amount, $10 million pertains to already identified services and vacancies that have not been filled. Forthcoming measures involve continued restructuring of management and central functions, as well as $50 million in the Norwegian telecom operations. The consolidation of subsidiaries will provide an additional $15 to $25 million in savings with full effect in 2027. Among other measures, we are introducing new working methods, improving product management, consolidating companies, reducing the organization, and streamlining management layers. We need to optimize our organization and working methods to be competitive in the market and keep our margins levels.

After the end of the quarter, we have conducted a strategic review of the business in the UK, and the divestment of the operations in the UK is initiated. We have a signed letter of intent in place, where our intention is for the deal to be completed before the end of the year. We have clear measures in all our three divisions, and we start with infra services. We have new management in place in one of our subsidiaries who, during a review prior to product completion, discovered that the products were overvalued by former management and had to be written down. Profitability was also impacted by the lower volumes in the quarter. The division is carrying out measures to improve product control, increase risk control, and facilitate more uniform ways of working for tenders, follow-ups, and forecasts. The cost-saving program is already in place.

As an additional measure, I assume the role of Acting Head of the division during the quarter. In power, profitability was impacted by one-off write-downs of completed products or products in end stages in a Swedish subsidiary, and also impacted by continued high proportion of product starts and lower volumes in Sweden. Profitability is expected to improve next year, in part through contributions from recently signed major framework agreements with, for example, E.ON and Vattenfall and Elvia in Norway. We are also reducing management levels to come closer to the products and streamlining the structure of the divisions by merging several subsidiaries. We also accelerated focus and resources to manage products efficiently with good governance, high risk control, and high customer satisfaction. We see more collaboration between the subsidiaries to win larger projects and increase resources efficiency.

In telecom, profitability was impacted by the high proportion of products that remained in startup phases during the quarter, as well as lower volumes in recently won projects. We also did not achieve the saving from the new business system and new organization in Norway that we had anticipated for this year. Approximately $50 million of the $25 million cost-saving program set to lower expenses in 2026 involves the Norwegian telecom operations. These measures include vacancies that have not been filled, new organization in October this year, which is adapted to the new, more efficient way of working. The new digital tools that are gradually being introduced in the Norwegian service organization are also expected to continue to contribute to increased efficiency and profitability. We have initiated, as I said earlier, divestment of the UK operations. Netel acquired the UK business in 2022 to establish ourselves in an additional market.

The UK business has had a negative performance trend and has negatively impacted both our earnings and cash flow. We have conducted a strategic review of the business, and the divestment of operations in the UK is initiated, as I said. We have, as in the infra services division, also taken on the role of Acting Head of the division. To ensure transparency of our measures, we are reporting the sales and adjusted EBITDA of the divisions and the group separately, excluding the company in the infra services division in Sweden, the company within power in Sweden, and the operations with telecom in the UK. This information can be found on page 35 in the report. In this way, we show both how the divisions and the group are performing without these three subsidiaries and how our measures are impacting our core business and the three subsidiaries.

Operations excluding the three above-mentioned companies account for more than 90% of our expected sales this year and are expected, despite lower volumes, to deliver an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 4% to 5% for the full year. Let's move on to our financial performance in more detail, Fredrik.

Fredrik Helenius, CFO, Netel: All right. Good morning, everyone. To start off, the financial performance in the third quarter is obviously impacted by the write-downs of the three subsidiaries and the write-down of margins. That impacts not only profit but also on our top line. This is simply an effect by using the percentage of completion method as the relevant principle when completing our statements. The write-downs in infra services, in power, and in telecom instantly hit the profit through an amended accrued income as new margins are assumed for the aforementioned projects ahead of the completion.

I believe that this, as Jeanette Reuterskiöld mentioned as well, is a very important characteristic to understand when evaluating the outcome, and especially to understand why we end up in an isolated quarter with a downward adjusted top line and losses for the group, whilst the guidance for the full year 2025 implies that we will be profitable again in Q4. Nevertheless, the 50+ million effect in the quarter included, we did see lower sales in the quarter with a total of SEK 654 million or -17.8% growth. The outcome is partially affected by the project phase as we start up new projects and focus on less volume-driven activities in the project lifecycle, and the start of the third quarter was a bit slower than expected, coming back here from the summer months.

Power in Sweden recognized lower sales as we continue to focus on new projects and tender processes, and infra services noted a relatively bigger drop in volume from delayed project starts and from the frame agreements, and in particular a lower hit rate from new contracts with increased competition in our markets and our maintained focus to ensure profitability in our bids. Power in Norway, however, continues to deliver a very promising growth with almost 90% growth in the quarter or 40% growth year to date, as we are continuing the strategy to enter new regions in southern Norway and profit from our great team efforts and our customer relationships.

Germany lost a bit of track here in the third quarter with a lot of activities enabling the start of our new projects with, for instance, QGG and Enviatel, though the team in Germany is still running with a 12% growth for the nine-month period. With the new customer mix and new agreements, we do look forward to the continuing cooperation to continue to build the fixed networks in the German markets. The order backlog has benefited from added contracts. For instance, the new agreement with E.ON in Sweden and Elvia in Norway amounted to SEK 3.8 billion end of September. We commented in July on the Q2 results that we included approximately SEK 1.5 billion of the backlog for the second half year of 2025. With the new guidance here of SEK 3 billion for the full year 2025, that is still approximately the outcome that we estimate.

The lower volume for the full year 2025 does not imply that we write down the backlog, but rather that we lower expectations from the fewer wins that will be possible to generate volumes for the financial year of 2025. Now, with the backlog of SEK 3.8 billion here in the third quarter, we have a good position in relation to our guidance for 2025 and almost SEK 2 billion expected for the 2026 production. It is still an interesting market and good underlying demands across our operations, and we believe that we will enter 2026 with a solid backlog once 2025 is closed further on in December.

Turning to the profitability in the quarter, the impact from the project or margin write-downs in the three subsidiaries in the quarter is evident, and the effect from using percentage of completion is visualized by the extreme drop in the quarterly profit here in Q3. Adjusted EBITDA was minus SEK 53 million in the third quarter, and in total, the margin write-downs accounted for SEK 59 million of the total results. As we communicated early October, we envisage an adjusted EBITDA of 1.5% to 2% for the full year 2025, and that is then including the negative effects here in this third quarter. The SEK 59 million in write-downs are not considered items affecting comparability or adjustments given the underlying operational structure and with the effect stemming from margin updates.

The three subsidiaries account for less than 10% of the group's total sales, and the profit impact from the margin update, mainly referring to the completed projects or projects near completion, implies a challenge for us to report on the ongoing operations and new potentials. To provide a transparent view on these current operations, we had, as Jeanette Reuterskiöld mentioned, added the tables for the reports on the group excluding each of these subsidiaries. As communicated in October, we believe that the 4% to 5% in adjusted EBITDA for that remaining 90% of our operations. Nevertheless, this is a quarter with relatively big isolated impact financially, and we, of course, note the need to educate on our process. The reasons are slightly different between the projects, but more importantly, we are considering the risk.

We are taking action on these issues, and we are working together with our core team to continue down the route to increase our margins going forward. We have tough decisions to create a more efficient organizational structure, identify the additional cost savings, and focus in on the underlying strategy with existing market opportunities and valuable colleagues aligned with the continuous work on risk management. That will support our process going forward. In addition to the effects on our top line and volume and the profitability in the quarter, we obviously have a few key items to reflect on in terms of our cash flow, financing, and the financial position of the company.

The operating cash flow in the quarter of SEK -44 million is reflecting the aforementioned level of new projects and projects currently within a starting phase, in addition to the relatively lower volumes, which implies that we do not get that extra margin or the contribution to the cash flow in the Q3 isolated. As previously discussed during the earlier quarters, we tend to see the relatively greater need of working capital when we ramp up production with new projects, and that is one main factor for the outcome of the SEK -44 million in this quarter. Still, the end of the quarter showcased promising improvements with greater levels of our own invoicing, and we still believe that the fourth quarter and the last one of 2025 will be a contribution with stronger cash flows and the seasonality effects as we finalize the ongoing projects.

In addition, there is one important understanding to discuss regarding the cash flow and the margin write-downs leading up to the communications early in October. We have already been through the effects from the percentage of completion, but that further implies that the cash flow effect will differ from the reported sales and profit levels. Surely, the margin write-down stems from both completed and ongoing near completion projects, and we do see some effects in the quarterly cash flow from these projects, but we do not expect to recognize ongoing negative cash flow. That money has already been paid during the project lifecycle, partially in this quarter and in earlier periods. For the year-to-date period 2025, these three subsidiaries have accounted for approximately SEK 60 million in negative operating cash flow. Again, we do expect to see limited future effects as most of this is already considered.

As we said, we do expect Q4 cash flows to include our seasonality characteristics with positive outcomes. As of the end of September, we had approximately SEK 150 million on our cash balance or SEK 360 million in total available funds. This outcome forms a good base continuing the work ahead of the year-end and obviously the relevant alternatives for the financing structures of Netel. The last 12 months' EBITDA is significantly impacted from the downward adjustment, and we know the leverage ratio has increased to very high levels. We mentioned that we have a few key items that need attention. As we became aware of the need for the margin write-down in this third quarter, we immediately initiated the process to support our compliance under our financing agreements.

As an effect from the high net leverage levels, given the impact on the EBITDA from the write-downs, we did not, as of the date September 30, meet all our financial undertakings in the financing agreements. That is why you will note that the financial debt is reclassified from long-term to short-term debt. As a consequence, we highlight the uncertain assumptions regarding the going concern. This is strictly done in accordance with the IFRS standards and the relevant accounting standards and principles, as we did not yet have a signed and agreed waiver from the lenders ready at that specific date, meaning the day that September ended. However, during October, that waiver has been achieved.

We have received a confirmation from the lenders, and we are now working together with continuous discussions in terms of good faith and the mutual ambition to close an amendment ahead of the year-end to ensure long-term financing in our statements again. We are working intensively on these matters with great care and with good prospects for the coming periods. We want to stress the fact that achieving the waiver during October implies that we do not expect any direct effects or actions on our existing debt today, but rather focus on the process ahead of the year-end. Our existing financing agreements are running with a termination date in December 2026, and we are already finding our structure to be underway with working on the new long-term financing solutions for the group, enabling or rather supporting the long-term strategy of Netel.

A few additional comments on our divisions and the performance in the quarter. We can start with the infra services. For this division, infra services, we recorded sales of SEK 134 million, which is down 39% from last year and impacted, just as the group, from the margin write-down in one subsidiary in the quarter. The effect from this specific unit amounted to approximately SEK 19 million. We note that we still struggle on the volumes and the profitability in the quarter. The main reasons are explained by the delayed and moved project starts from the frame agreements. Still, a relatively higher part of projects in the starting phase and the decision to maintain our focus on ensuring profitability in our tendering processes.

What we mean by that is basically the implication of, in the short term, relatively fewer project wins as the competition remains on a fairly high level within our local market, and prices simply are, in some cases, too low in contrast to our expectation on relevant bid prices with prospects for profits. This is further one main point explaining why we expect a SEK 3 billion top line for the full year 2025. It does not imply that we take a very cautious approach on the market opportunities. Rather the opposite, we note many interesting tenders to bid for, and we are working with new tenders across our local markets, but also towards nearby regions and clients, in addition, of course, to increase our own focus on our structure and our own efficiency.

The write-down of margins in one subsidiary within infra services implies the total EBITDA for the division of minus SEK 23 million, of which SEK 19 million refer to that specific unit. We have a new management in place in that unit. We have reduced the heads from almost 40 full-time employees at year-end 2024 to below 20 today. During the detailed reviews of the project portfolio together with our new management, it became evident that several projects were running with wrong assumptions. Given the outcome here in Q3 year to date, infra services will struggle on the volumes for 2025. We continue to build up an order backlog to support the year-on-year improvements in the longer run.

Within power, we report sales of SEK 196 million or minus 5% growth, yet with a promising performance from our Norwegian business, where we saw a growth of, as said previously, almost 90% in the quarter and 40% year to date. Norway continues to deliver positively from this strategic initiative to expand the addressable market, basically, through both geographies and through clients. Sweden, on the other hand, continues to focus on starting our new projects and to work with tenders with the right profitability characteristics as the market still generates interesting opportunities. The EBITDA of -$20 million in the quarter includes -$21 million from write-downs in one of our Swedish subsidiaries. The projects in question are related to an agreement ending here in 2025.

With a new management in place, new client agreements in place from 2026 onwards, we envisage a stepwise improvement during 2026, lowering the risk and increasing the performance with better EBITDA contributions. In telecom, we noted a relatively slow start after the summer months. Though September brought the speed back, the division reported -12% growth and $324 million in sales. Evidently, there is an impact on both the top line and profitability from the performance and the write-down from our UK operations. Germany continues to contribute and enable their year-on-year improvements as we now increase the speed towards and within our new projects with our new clients. Norway is currently underway with a significant reorganization to enable the next steps of their improvements.

Together with the previously discussed margin-enhancing measures and efficiency tools with improved system support, we look forward to evaluate the performance from our service contracts and ongoing projects entering the fourth quarter and over 2026. In total, telecom reported an EBITDA of -$19 million, mainly explained by the impact from the downward adjustments in the UK. With regards to the UK, as mentioned a few times, we are pleased to highlight that we are working swiftly on actions and that we have a letter of intent signed. We are working closely with the counterparts to support a smooth process regarding the UK, enabling us to focus on the core markets of Sweden and Norway, and in addition, the growth markets with our team down in Germany.

Coming back to the indications, we did announce in October that the write-down of margins in three subsidiaries and the lower expectations on sales for the full year 2025 of around $400 million are affecting Netel's results for 2025. The assessment from October 1 remains unchanged. The full year 2025 revenue is expected to amount to approximately SEK 3 billion with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 1.5% to 2%. The remaining operations, meaning the 90% that weren't affected by the write-downs, are still expected, despite reduced volumes due to the market changes and without considerations for the forthcoming cost savings, to deliver an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 4% to 5% for 2025. For 2026, we expect to achieve growth and margin improvements for the full year given the cost-saving measures during 2025 and through 2026 and the market conditions that we see today.

We started with a few comments on the backlog. With the backlog of SEK 3 billion here in the third quarter, we have a good position in relation to the guidance for 2025. Almost SEK 2 billion is expected for 2026. With that, I believe that we can move back to you, Jeanette, to summarize and add a bit of flavor on the process going forward.

Jeanette Reuterskiöld, President and CEO, Netel: Thank you, Fredrik, for this presentation. I will finalize today's presentation with some concluding remarks. It's been a difficult but necessary decision that we have done, and we have to make more such decisions to adapt to the new scenarios that we have seen. We have a clear plan to improve profitability and are completing the measures we have communicated. We are maintaining a high pace during the remainder of this year to win new great contracts, implement the saving programs, and complete our signed contracts to enter 2026 with better conditions. Through continued focus on consolidating our operations within the divisions and the group, increased internal efficiency, improved processes, and strengthened financial position, we are preparing ourselves to face the future. In conclusion, I would like to thank all of our employees for their commitment, hard work every day, and all your support.

We are open and ready for any questions.

Conference Operator: If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad.

Yes, good morning, Jeanette and Fredrik. I'm not sure if you hear me. Sorry.

Fredrik Helenius, CFO, Netel: Yeah, we hear you.

I was a bit off there.

Good, good. Lots of moving parts, obviously, today, but let's focus on a couple of them. Just looking at these three subsidiaries where the projects went wrong, so to say, or the assumptions were wrong, do you see it was a tendering problem that you, the teams went into too aggressive kind of assumptions on when they tender for these projects, or is it more related to how you ended up being able to execute on them that you needed to revise them?

Jeanette Reuterskiöld, President and CEO, Netel: I would say that in these cases, it's different between the three subsidiaries. In the one subsidiary in power, for example, we had an old contract since 2021, with today's price levels, too low prices for us in that contract. In that case, it was tough conditions in the contract for us due to slightly less possibility for us to have index changes through the last years. As Fredrik Helenius said, this contract is ended now in 2025, and we have a new framework agreement with that client for next year with a good contract in that case. In the other subsidiary for infra services, the tender levels and the contract calculation was on site, but we could see afterwards that it was our own organization in these cases that had problems to deliver on those projects.

For the telecom business, it's been a struggle for us from the beginning when we went into the UK. We started to work with new customers that we hadn't worked with before, and it took time for the organization to know how to work with those clients. It's different scenarios in each of these three subsidiaries. We feel confident that we are making now the right measures, and we have identified the different struggles that we have had. In both the subsidiaries in Sweden for power and infra services, we have new management on site with a stronger organization and better follow-up for us. That's also one of the reasons for me to take head of the divisions infra and telecom to come closer also to the organization and of course the projects. That is one of the reasons for us to do that right now.

Thank you for the color. I'm looking at all the work that you did initially when you joined as CEO on the basis of the Finnish problems you had and also the contract problems when looking at the index clauses not being there in the contract and similar kind of thing. Is there any reason why, for example, the power contract wasn't highlighted at the same time or did it come up to the surface now?

As we said at that time, it's not that every contract of ours has index. It depends on how long-term the contract is, et cetera. This contract has been in our subsidiary since that time. The amount of project in that contract has exceeded to a level that we didn't see from the beginning. We always have a mix of contracts in a unit or a subsidiary, and we can compensate with better contracts. This contract, during the last year, has increased so much that we haven't been able to correct with other new contracts for the margin in this subsidiary.

I can just add to that. I understand the question, but to make that super clear, this is that contract or subsidiary in the power business. This is not about index clauses not being in the contract. This is rather about the fact that we now have simply too many projects running at the same time towards the end of the contract. The previous management struggled structuring the start of those subprojects in that contract. To give some flavor on that, that means that we have a few project leaders running more than 100 minor projects at the same time. That is not a good solution for that business. With the new management in place, we have now been through the business. We have understood that changes were needed. We now see the effects here in the third quarter of the margin update.

As Jeanette mentioned, we have taken the actions to further implement the improvements now from 2026 onwards in new structures.

Fredrik Helenius, CFO, Netel: Excellent. I understand it's a fluid material here. When we look at the backlog of $3.8 billion, do you still see that supporting your margin ambition when you're looking at the terms? Do we have some sort of feeling where you see things ending up in 2026?

As we have said before, and as clarified today regarding the estimated lower volume for 2025, we are working with our financial targets in the sense to evaluate the profitability of our tenders. We can confirm that in the backlog, we do see that it is supportive for the financial targets in the longer term. Obviously, we are now having this third quarter. We have provided the guidance for 2025 and also the guidance for 2026, saying that we will improve from the 2025 levels. On the order backlog, we are chasing and looking for projects that support our financial targets.

Excellent. Obviously, not being in compliance with financial covenants creates an extra uncertainty. It's good to see the waiver and the way you described the liquidity base of the company. When is there, I guess, before we see any more firm idea about the financing of the company, it's going to be a big period of uncertainty. Do you have any idea when you can come back and give us more clarity on that?

As we commented, we did work together with our lenders and our counterparts for the waiver here during October. Today, our strong focus, together with our counterparts, is that we are entering into the discussions to achieve long-term financing again ahead of December 31, i.e., on this side of the year-end. Our focus is strongly on that process. As commented, we want to stress that we are now working together with the lenders to support the achievement of the amendment ahead of December 31.

The impact you're doing in Q4 on receiving the waiver is that we should expect, say, substantially higher interest rate cost for servicing the debt you have until you get into new agreements?

No, we have no such details. I think that, again, our strong focus now is first of all highlighting the effects of the statements here in the third quarter and focusing on the discussions in terms of good faith together with our lenders to achieve the amendments ahead of year-end.

Excellent. Thank you very much, I appreciate it, the color, and all the best out there and good luck in a difficult situation.

Thank you.

Jeanette Reuterskiöld, President and CEO, Netel: Thank you.

Fredrik Helenius, CFO, Netel: I'm not sure if we don't have any additional questions on the line, but we do have a few written ones. We have a question on the quality of the backlog. I think that we commented on that one, that we do go after projects that can support our financial targets. We have another question referring to the risk on the short-term liquidity, if we see a need for fresh capital. As I said, we have SEK 150 million in cash end of September, SEK 360 million in available funds. We do not see a short-term liquidity issue. Again, our focus is now when we did achieve the waiver in October to ensure the smooth process and the ongoing discussions together with our lenders ahead of year-end. I think that we have a sort of related question, what can we expect in terms of a new share issue?

Again, we do have our underlying financing agreements running to December 2026. In the short term, our focus is on achieving the amendment and the long-term financing ahead of year-end. In the longer term, of course, we will look at the overall refinancing of the company, given that the underlying agreements are running with the termination date in December 2026. We have another question for the public sector and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, how we see our forecast and our contracts and projects when it comes to the defense customers and the revenue or profitability in that kind of clients, I assume, and type of contracts.

Jeanette Reuterskiöld, President and CEO, Netel: Yeah, as I said earlier, the segment for the public sector and Swedish Defence Materiel Administration in Sweden is one of our strategic new customer and segments that we are approaching and will see more volume within. Of course, that is a very interesting segment for us further on and important. I think we had one more question there.

Yeah, we have a question saying that we indicate 4 to 5% EBITDA margin for the full year. To make that super clear, that 4 to 5% refers to the business excluding the three subsidiaries with the margin write-downs here in Q3. Those included, we did guide on 1.5 to 2%. The question then refers to that, that would imply a very strong Q4. I think that's simply the need for that clarification. Our guidance of 1.5 to 2% includes the write-downs. The 4 to 5% refer to the 90% of the business that did not have these write-downs in the third quarter.

You can see this specific on page 35 in the report.

Yes, lastly, there's a question again on the share issue given the severe debt situation and the weak cash flow. As stated, we do have a cash balance of SEK 150 million here at the end of September and SEK 360 million as available funds. We do say that we expect to have a stronger cash flow in the fourth quarter, and our focus will be on ensuring the long-term financing again here in 2025 and ultimately before the year-end. I don't think that we have any other questions.

No.

I thank you for listening in.

Yes, we see you next time for quarter four on the 6th of February 2026.

Thank you.

Thank.Okay,

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