Earnings call transcript: Nimbus Group Q3 2025 sees stock dip amid market challenges

Nimbus Group, with a market capitalization of $41.1 million, reported its third-quarter earnings for 2025, revealing a challenging period marked by a decline in net sales and a negative EBITDA. The company’s stock fell 11.66% in pre-market trading, reflecting investor concerns over the company’s performance in a struggling global marine market. Despite the setbacks, Nimbus is focusing on strategic initiatives to navigate the turbulent waters, including product innovation and market expansion efforts.

According to InvestingPro analysis, while the company is currently experiencing headwinds, analysts expect net income growth this year. InvestingPro subscribers have access to 8 additional key insights about Nimbus’s financial health and market position.

Key Takeaways

• Nimbus Group’s net sales fell significantly to SEK 263 million from SEK 378 million year-over-year.
• The company reported an EBITDA of -SEK 45 million, an improvement from the previous year’s -SEK 66 million.
• Stock price dropped by 11.66% in pre-market trading following the earnings release.
• The global marine market is at its lowest point in over a decade, with significant declines in North America.
• Nimbus is prioritizing recovery efforts in North America and expanding its dealer networks internationally.

Company Performance

Nimbus Group faced a challenging third quarter with a substantial drop in net sales, attributed largely to a significant downturn in the North American market. The company’s performance is reflective of broader industry trends, with the global marine market experiencing its lowest point in over ten years. Despite these challenges, Nimbus has made strides in improving its EBITDA compared to the same quarter last year, signaling efforts to manage costs and improve operational efficiency.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: SEK 263 million, down from SEK 378 million year-over-year.
• EBITDA: -SEK 45 million, an improvement from -SEK 66 million in the previous year.
• Gross Margin: 2.9%, indicating tight profit margins.
• Available Cash: SEK 248 million, with SEK 48 million in cash and a SEK 200 million credit facility.

Market Reaction

Nimbus Group’s stock experienced a notable decline of 11.66% in pre-market trading following the earnings announcement. This movement reflects investor apprehension regarding the company’s declining sales and the broader challenges faced by the marine industry. The stock’s performance is in stark contrast to its 52-week high of SEK 20.6, highlighting the volatility in investor sentiment amid ongoing market uncertainties.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, Nimbus Group is focusing on revitalizing its presence in the North American market, which has been significantly impacted. The company is also reviewing its product portfolio and commercial strategies to align with market demands. Key strategic initiatives include the launch of new boat models tailored for the North American market and an expansion of its dealer networks in key regions such as Switzerland, Turkey, Florida, and Oslo.

Executive Commentary

CEO Johan Inden emphasized the importance of brand and product performance, stating, "Each brand, each product in the portfolio has to be able to defend its own existence." He also highlighted the necessity of effective cash management, noting, "Managing your working capital and your cash is everything in the marine business." These comments underscore the company’s focus on strategic positioning and financial prudence in a challenging market environment.

Risks and Challenges

• Declining sales in key markets, particularly North America, pose a significant risk to revenue growth.
• The global marine market downturn could continue to impact demand and sales volumes.
• Tight gross margins leave little room for error in cost management and operational efficiency.
• Dependence on market recovery signals, such as dealer inventory levels, adds uncertainty to future performance.
• Potential supply chain disruptions could affect production and delivery schedules.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about Nimbus’s strategy for North American market recovery. The company plans to increase sales resources and participate in boat shows to boost visibility. Questions also addressed the status of Bella and Flipper inventory sales, with Nimbus confirming that production equipment has been moved and activities are expected to conclude by the fourth quarter. Additionally, the dealer inventory was discussed, with Nimbus noting that inventory levels are perceived to be balanced, indicating readiness for market recovery.

Full transcript - Nimbus Group AB (BOAT) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Now I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Johan Inden, CFO, Rasmus Alvemyr, and Head of Investor Relations, Gunilla Öhman. Please go ahead.

Johan Inden, CEO, Nimbus Group: Good morning and welcome, everyone, to the Nimbus Group presentation of the Q3 report. This is Johan Inden speaking. Before we flip to the next slide, I’d just like to introduce one of our new products, the EdgeWater 250 Center Console. It’s a family-friendly sportfish that we have just introduced to the American market. Let’s introduce myself. It’s my first Q3 report. I joined Nimbus Group as the CEO from September 1. On this first report, I thought we might spend two minutes just on my background. I’ve spent the last decade and some in Volvo Penta’s executive team. I started out running technology and purchasing for Volvo Penta, which is exposed then to the global marine business as well as industrial sales to industrial companies. The last seven years on the commercial side as the President for the global marine business.

In a simple way of saying it, the world’s boat builders were my customers, including Nimbus, and now I’m happy to join the Nimbus team. Prior as well, I spent a number of years with technology investments and venture capital. I think I bring a deep understanding and also network in the global marine industry, a strong industrial foundation on how it is to run a global industrial company, as well as a good understanding of technology-based companies, building value, and seeing the investor perspective. I think those will be useful traits in my new job and really happy to join this group. Let’s go to the performance and how we are doing then in the third quarter. First of all, I must say the quarter has been characterized by a challenging market environment.

There are two things that I would say run through the report when it comes to our performance. First of all, it’s a significant drop of the market in North America, and we’ll come back and dive into the details of that. Second is accelerated restructuring of Nimbus Group, activities that we have started several quarters back, which are now both starting to take significant effect. We also have effects of the ongoing, for example, move of our production or consolidation of our production into our outsourced partner, moving production from Finland, for example. We’ll come back to that in the details as well. Looking at the results, net sales amounted to SEK 263 million. We dropped from SEK 378 million in the comparable quarter. North America in itself dropped by SEK 130 million.

If you do the calculation on the group level, you see that the group dropped 115, which means that outside North America, we balanced the drop in sum, so to say, but North America is the significant delta in our sales. This, of course, drops to the gross profit, where the biggest gap between the outcome then of SEK 8 million as compared to SEK 47 million last year is loss of volume and also loss of margin due to the fact that we are still working to reduce some inventory. This falls also into the EBITDA level, where we see that we are turning the trend on the cost level. We made minus SEK 45 million as compared to minus SEK 66 million last year. As I mentioned before, we see that our cost savings initiatives actually give us good traction.

On the other hand, they are not enough to balance the lost volume that we see in the market. This is as well consistent through cash flow. The end of the quarter, minus SEK 43 million, whilst we had minus SEK 69 million in the previous quarter. Same here, we see that our initiatives are really taking effect, but they are not enough to balance the drop in volume that we see. When it comes to the order book, we also see a reduction in the order book, again concentrated around North America, where we’ve actually made a precautionary adjustment of the order book as well. We know that when the market drops this fast, as we’ve seen in North America, you need to be very careful with your order book in order to not end up building inventory.

That’s why we’ve seen even a negative development of the North American order book then. Finally, our available cash amounts to SEK 248 million end of quarter, divided between cash in the bank of SEK 48 million and a credit facility of SEK 200 million. That is just a quick summary and some highlights of the results for the third quarter. We’ll dive deeper into all of the items through the presentation. To share some observations on the order book development as well as the market environment, I’ve already highlighted the weak market in North America. When we take a step back and we look at the global volumes in the marine market, we see that they are at the lowest point in over a decade, I would say.

This is an important observation to understand that the volumes are low, not only in North America, but we see it in Europe, we see it in Nordic, we see it in the rest of the world. You need to dive into the details to understand what does this mean. Of course, we have the softening market in North America. That’s the biggest, so to say, transitionary change we’ve seen, and it dropped significantly down to SEK 71 million in the quarter as compared to SEK 201 million the quarter before. When we dive into the details, we see that there is a low retail pace in the market. You know our business model, I’m sure. We sell wholesale to dealers, and then dealers retail sell. It’s extremely important in this industry to watch the retail pace, what the dealers are selling out to end consumers.

We monitor this retail pace or retail sales on a continuous basis. We see that retail pace is low. We also see, in combination with this, that dealer stock is now on low levels. As an example for EdgeWater, our brand based out of Florida in the U.S., we’ve seen eight quarters in a row of reduced dealer stock. Whilst retail pace remains low, we also see that dealer stock is low. When dealer stock goes below a certain level, you’ll start to see production orders, and you’ll start to see a balance of the business. If you look at our total commercial order book, then it’s at SEK 297 million. I already mentioned the fact that we’ve made a precautionary adjustment towards North America.

I’m also really glad to see that the retail sales order book continues to show health, and we actually see growing numbers quarter to quarter over the last, not only the last quarter three, but also the year before. Our retail business then, which is exposed in Sweden, Norway, and the UK, shows a healthy sign in the order book, and it also correlates with what we see in the market movements between the different continents. The Nordic was first in to the down cycle, and we see signs that Nordic is stabilizing and even growing on the retail level right now. When it comes to me joining as CEO in Nimbus, I spent September as part of the quarter and then the weeks in October as the CEO for the business. I wanted to take the opportunity and share some observations with you.

Of course, the observations lead to actions and how I intend to influence the business going forward. First of all, I must say I’m extremely impressed by the engagement and the commitment across the global Nimbus Group organization. It’s an organization that stems back to 1968, and it’s a very strong foundation in the group. We have a portfolio of premium brands. They are exposed to a global market, and we have presence globally, not only in the Nordics, but also Europe and North America. We also see a long-term, and this is the general perspective on the global marine market. It is a long-term growth perspective, although it has its cyclicality. Third, I really want to stress the opportunities within the workboat and defense segment.

We have our brand Alukin, where we are now working towards the Swedish defense with an order which has been released before over 15 years. It’s a SEK 400 million order. If recent press releases, the gate has now been passed, and the boat is in testing. The boat which you see on the right-hand side is a consumer version or a smaller consumer version of the boat that we are now developing together with FMV. Extremely important segment for us. It has a very different cycle to the consumer part of our business. Coming to my observations, which are also then influencing what actions we are now taking in the company. First of all, we need to turn the trend in North America. We see a very tough quarter in North America.

At the same time, North America is roughly half of the boating industry volume that we can reach in the consumer segment. Succeeding in North America is imperative for the Nimbus Group strategy over time. We have our foothold with EdgeWater, and we are selling our brands both in EdgeWater, Nimbus, Aquador, and Alukin into North America. Turning the trend means that we are now looking at our portfolio, the competitiveness of it. We look at our distribution. Do we work with the right dealers? Are we working with them in the right way? Are we incentivizing in the right way? Are we training them in the right way? Do we have the right organization in place and the right ways of working between our EdgeWater facility, between our Annapolis facility, etc.?

We’re doing a review of our commercial capacity and our ways of working in North America to make sure that we improve our performance over there. Second observation and area of work is to secure that we have a product portfolio and brand portfolio which performs. For those of you who’ve spent the time reading the CEO note on the report, you know that my philosophy on a brand and product portfolio is very simple. Each brand, each product in the portfolio has to be able to defend its own existence. That means we all have to perform across this portfolio, and the portfolio as such is not an objective. We are right now walking through our portfolio. We’re reviewing the performance and market presence of each brand and each product. From that, we will set our investments, and we will curate our portfolio.

We’ve already taken some actions, as you might have seen in the report. We have decided to close or initiate the sale of Stream Propulsion, which is a venture where we are part owners, directed towards electric outboards for small boats. Both the fact that it’s directed to part of the portfolio where we are reducing our activities by outsourcing or selling Bella and Flipper, and for the fact that the electric transition takes time, longer time than I think everyone expected a few years back, we’ve decided to now initiate the sale of Stream Propulsion. With the move of factory capacity from Finland to our outsourced partner, we have also decided to stop a few models which are then not presented to the market anymore. We will come back to more details on these product portfolio developments going forward.

Third, we need to improve our commercial capability and price management. Here we are looking at, again, as I mentioned, for North America, but from a global perspective, how are we then working with our dealer network? We have a wide dealer network. In my experience, when you work with dealers, you need to also have a strong educational part where you educate the dealers on how to work with the products. You also have to have a stringent process on how you build business plans, challenge, and develop the dealers. We are reviewing those procedures as well as price management in terms of both price and cost and margin for the product, but also competitive pricing, which needs to be driven from a local perspective on the different markets. Improving our commercial capacity is one of the key items in improving our performance as a group.

We’ve also recruited a new colleague on the team, Christina Evans, who joins as Deputy CEO and Head of our Commercial Sales. I’m really happy to bring her on board here from October 1. Finally, on what we have our focus, cost control and cash management. Managing your working capital and your cash is everything in the marine business. It’s a production cycle which ties significant cash, and making sure that you’re financed in the right way, making sure that you’re managing all the way from your order book to your retail sales in the right way influences your net working capital significantly. We’re now reviewing and streamlining these processes. Cost control, we know that we are doing negative results. We have initiated a number of activities since before. We will keep a very strong discipline and cost control to make sure we navigate in a good way forward.

Those were some observations. I wanted to share those with you to give an idea of what’s on my table and the company’s table going forward. Of course, this business is about presenting fantastic products to the market and some highlights from the market. We have then continued to expand our dealer networks with appointments in Switzerland, Turkey, Florida, and Oslo, Norway. We have, as I already mentioned, got the design approval towards the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, FMV then in Swedish with the Alukin workboat. We have launched the EdgeWater 250 Center Console, as I showed you on the introductory picture for North America. We are also nominated with our Aquador 400 HT newly launched product, and we’re nominated to Best of Boats in the category Best for Family during 2025. This award ceremony is end of November. We’ll be curiously looking at how we are then coming out.

Finally, and I think very importantly, we have the public launch of our flagship, the Nimbus 495 Fly for North America at Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. That boat show is next week. It’s one of the most important boat shows across the world. As I’ve already talked through North America and you understand the challenge we saw in the last quarter, it will be extremely important to be there to sense the pulse of the market, but then even more so for us to present this fantastic product to the market in North America. With that, I would like to hand over to Rasmus Alvemyr to give you some more details on the financials.

Rasmus Alvemyr, CFO, Nimbus Group: Thank you, Johan. We start with some key financial items. As Johan showed earlier, the EBITDA dropped to -SEK 45 million in the quarter, and that included the restructuring costs of SEK 17 million. The adjusted EBITDA amounted to -SEK 28 million versus -SEK 7 million last year. The restructuring cost, in combination with different campaigns to reduce inventory, including costs from cost under absorption effects from low sales and production, has pushed down the gross margin to 2.9% in the quarter. Out of the restructuring cost, SEK 12 million is allocated to gross profit. In relation to last year, the sales volume dropped SEK 150 million, which gave an effect on the gross profit by -SEK 40 million, while the price and under absorption effect amounted to -SEK 10 million, which you can see in the chart to the right.

On top of this, there is also a negative currency effect from U.S. dollars amounting to -SEK 4 million. Altogether, this pushed down the consolidated gross contributions significantly from SEK 47 million to SEK 8 million. On the cost side, OpEx decreased due to cost saving activities from SEK 57 million to SEK 45 million, which is down 21% year over year. The finance net amounted to -SEK 18 million versus -SEK 20 million last year. As Johan mentioned, due to a strategic decision, we have decided to write down the investment in Stream Propulsion down to zero. This had a negative effect on the consolidated finance net of -SEK 6 million. Together with the other owners of Stream Propulsion, we have started a process to initiate the divestment of Stream Propulsion.

As Johan mentioned, Stream offers electric outboards, and it’s not in our ambition to become a supplier of outboard engines going forward. Our share of the company is 50%. The finance net was also affected by FX effects from intercompany balances, affecting the finance net with about SEK 7 million referring to U.S. dollars. We moved to the commercial sales. Commercial sales dropped 38% in a quarter to SEK 165 million, driven by a soft start of the quarter. Market-wise, the decrease is related to North America, where both sales and order intake dropped significantly versus last year. Sales went down by SEK 130 million to SEK 71 million, and the order intake came out net negative by -SEK 26 million versus SEK 93 million last year.

As Johan talked about, the reason for this is that we have made an adjustment of the order book based on the soft market situation. In practice, this means that we have reevaluated pre-orders of about SEK 60 million that we believe might be risky going forward. In Europe, the sales went up to SEK 74 million, which is in line with the increased order intake that we saw in the second quarter. Sales in Nordics dropped by SEK 11 million, but it’s important that it’s from low levels. We move on to the retail business. The retail sales dropped by 40% in the quarter to SEK 98 million. The drop was driven by less traded and used boats. Sale of own brands was up 5% to SEK 45 million, which is positive and also a preferred balance from a consolidated perspective.

The order intake was fairly in line with last year and amounted to SEK 131 million versus SEK 134 million last year. Own brands increased by 5% to SEK 60 million, while traded boats and used boats went down by 13% to SEK 55 million. Services and accessories were also better than last year and decreased from SEK 14 million to SEK 16 million. The order book amounted to SEK 61 million, which is higher than both 2023 with SEK 36 million and 2024 with SEK 55 million. Last year, we saw a positive development in the retail business starting off late Q2 and continued during the third and fourth quarter, all the way up until the escalated tariff debate in late Q1. The pattern so far seems to be similar or better than last year regarding the retail business. We have the cash flow and net working capital.

Operating cash flow in the period improved versus last year and amounted to minus SEK 43 million versus minus SEK 69 million. The net working capital amounted to SEK 661 million, which is down SEK 3 million since the second quarter and also slightly lower than last year, which is important since this is the first quarter since the fourth quarter 2021 where the net working capital has been flat or at least not increased. This is a positive signal that confirms that taken actions have started to have effect. Finally, we have available cash amounting to SEK 248 million, including unused checking with them. With that, I’ll leave the word back to you, Johan.

Johan Inden, CEO, Nimbus Group: Thank you very much, Rasmus. On our final slide before moving to the Q&A is the financial targets, which have been consistent since previous reports. With that, I don’t intend to walk them through. You’ve seen them before. With that, we will actually take us to the Q&A.

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. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more phone questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.

Investor Relations, Nimbus Group: Thank you very much. We have some written questions. The first one comes from Vilgot Arnold at DMV Carnegie. He asked that North America remains very weak while Europe improved sequentially. Where do you see the first signs of demand recovery, and what actions are you taking to regain momentum in the U.S.?

Johan Inden, CEO, Nimbus Group: Thank you, Vilgot, for the question. When it comes to the first side, the signs of demand recovery, I think we talked about retail sales in the Nordic. I spoke a bit more about retail sales, that that’s where we need to monitor to understand how the market develops. The fact that we have quarter-to-quarter improvements in the Nordic retail sales, I think is a sign that Nordic is moving forward. When it comes to Europe, we had an improvement in sales, as you could see. We have a flat development of the order book, which means that we need to continuously monitor Europe to understand how Europe develops. A good sign over the quarter in Europe is that sales is improving. When it comes to the U.S., as you’re on to here, it’s extremely important to regain the momentum in the U.S.

I talk through it as one of my top priority points. We’ve already initiated a few actions on the commercial capacity in the U.S. We’ve added, for example, a resource, Florida-based resource. Florida is one of the absolute biggest markets in North America. We need to improve our performance there. We’ve added sales resources there. We are now going to Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, both to present our new products, but also further analyze what actions do we take on the commercial side. It’s extremely important to activate that market more.

Investor Relations, Nimbus Group: Thank you. The next question is from Ola. He asks, could you provide a status update on the sale of the existing inventory and production equipment for Bella and Flipper?

Johan Inden, CEO, Nimbus Group: For sure, we can. Those actions have been initiated in the previous quarter, but in this quarter, we actually accelerated the activities relating to move production into our outsourced production partner, which is already the partner for, for example, the Nimbus WTC models. We have moved the equipment. We’ve taken the majority of the cost of moving these activities in the quarter. We’ll have some slight, and I would say insignificant, effects with us into Q4. When we close Q4, we will be done with these activities.

Investor Relations, Nimbus Group: Very good. The third question comes from George GC. Can you talk a bit about the inventory situation, including small boats?

Johan Inden, CEO, Nimbus Group: Absolutely. As I mentioned, monitoring the dealer inventory primarily is very important to understand how retail sales, so to say, take boats from dealer stock or actually produce factory orders. I mentioned one of the KPIs that we are monitoring is this dealer stock. We’ve seen for EdgeWater, as an example, eight quarters in a row of reduced dealer stock. You could always discuss, is the dealer stock on a healthy level? That, of course, relates to the market, the size of the market. We see reduced stock, significantly reduced stock at the dealers. At the current low level of the market, we perceive them to be in balance, which means that when the market moves forward, we hope that we’ll see more retail sales converting to factory orders. That is something we have to monitor closely in the coming quarters.

If you look at Europe and the stock situation, their judgment is that dealer inventory is now on the low level.

Investor Relations, Nimbus Group: Thank you very much, Johan and Rasmus. Thank you, everyone, for listening in. Just a gentle reminder that our Q4 and full year 2025 report will be published on February 4. Very welcome back.

Johan Inden, CEO, Nimbus Group: Thank you, everyone, for calling in. Thank you.

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