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Spir Group ASA reported an 11% revenue growth for the second quarter of 2025, reaching NOK 268 million, driven by strong performance in its real estate data and software division. The company also achieved a 22% increase in gross profit, with a margin of 53%. According to InvestingPro data, the company’s current market capitalization stands at $287.46 million, with a beta of 2.39 indicating higher volatility than the broader market. Despite these positive results, the company’s stock showed a modest increase of 0.94% in pre-market trading, reflecting cautious investor sentiment amid broader market trends.
Key Takeaways
- Spir Group’s Q2 revenue grew by 11% year-over-year.
- Gross profit increased by 22%, with a 53% margin.
- The company completed the divestiture of Sikre for NOK 1 billion.
- Initiated a NOK 10 million cost reduction program.
- Stock price increased by 0.94% in pre-market trading.
Company Performance
Spir Group ASA demonstrated robust performance in Q2 2025, with significant growth in both revenue and profitability. The company’s focus on real estate data and software has solidified its position as a market leader, capturing 90% market share in key areas. The divestiture of Sikre and cost reduction initiatives further strengthened its financial position, allowing for a strategic focus on innovation and expansion.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: NOK 268 million (11% growth year-over-year)
- Gross Profit: 22% growth, with a 53% margin
- Cash EBITDA: NOK 25 million (67% increase)
- First Half Revenue: NOK 515 million (18% growth)
- Adjusted EBITDA: 28% increase in Q2
Outlook & Guidance
Spir Group is targeting a dividend payout of 40-60% of cash EBITDA and is pursuing a strategy of bolt-on mergers and acquisitions to enhance its market position. The company aims to improve margins and cash flow by leveraging AI and data analytics, with a strategic focus on unifying, connecting, innovating, and expanding its offerings.
Executive Commentary
CEO Perko Lundstad emphasized the company’s leadership in the real estate sector, stating, "We are a go-to house for everyone in the real estate sector." Lundstad also highlighted the company’s data infrastructure as a unique advantage, reinforcing its commitment to improving margins and cash flow.
Risks and Challenges
- Market Volatility: Fluctuations in the real estate market could impact revenue.
- Regulatory Changes: The EU Open Data Directive may affect certain segments.
- Competitive Pressure: Maintaining market leadership requires continuous innovation.
- Economic Conditions: Broader economic downturns could affect investment and growth.
- Integration Risks: Challenges in integrating acquisitions could disrupt operations.
Spir Group ASA’s Q2 2025 earnings reflect strong operational performance and strategic initiatives, positioning the company well for future growth. However, ongoing market and regulatory challenges require careful navigation to sustain its competitive edge.
Full transcript - Spir Group ASA (SPIR) Q2 2025:
Perko Lundstad, CEO, Spear Group: Welcome to the presentation of the second quarter twenty twenty five for SPEAR Group. I’m Perko Lundstad, the CEO of Spear Group, and our new CFO, Lina Cecilia Stenset, will join me in a few minutes. We have many exciting things to talk about today, and the streamlining of the group following the successful divestment of Sikre is an important milestone for us. The transaction gave an enterprise value of 1,000,000,000 NOK and was closed in July. Spear is now a pure play real estate data and software company.
Let’s get back to that in a minute. But first, I will give you the highlights from the quarterly results. Note that all the numbers in the presentation are focused on real estate only, the new group structure. The second quarter was another very strong quarter for Sphere, with 11% revenue growth with strong contribution from all our segments. ADAR is now at NOK $216,000,000, up four 5% compared to the same period last year.
After the divestment of Sikle, our revenue consists of close to 70% transaction based revenue, while subscriptions have a bit more than 20% of the revenue. The rest is primarily consulting. Our gross profit grew with 22% in the second quarter, providing a gross margin of 53% and cash EBITDA increased with 67% to NOK25 million, producing a margin of 9%. Although the development is positive, we have higher ambitions and clear plans to strengthen our growth profile and profitability. We’ll come back with more about this in a few minutes.
But let me now show you a short film showing you what SP Group is today after the divestment of Sikle. The simplified and sharpened spear is now an attractive partner, vendor and employer in the real estate ecosystem. With our new profile, we also think the share will be an interesting investment for a broader audience. Our unique products, real estate and geoinformation data are a solid foundation for strong growth. We have up to 90% market share in important areas and are involved in nine out of 10 real estate transactions.
With new solutions and enhanced sales capabilities, we have the ambition to grow revenue per transaction. In addition, we have the opportunity to broaden our customer base. We are targeting increased profits and we are already in the process of executing on a 10,000,000 cost reduction program initiated in January. You will see us focus on scalability and further streamlining and reorganization of the organization. We will prioritize to grow profit and cash EBITDA will grow in the years to come.
And finally, the divestment of Sikki provides us with a very strong balance sheet, following a special dividend of NOK $324,000,000 or 2.44 per share. We have limited depth and must go to execute on our strategy and bolt on M and As. Let me summarize the journey up until today. Spear was established in 2019 with Sika as the only asset. During the first few years, we made several acquisitions including Ambita and Netra, key assets today.
Then during the last two, three years, we have consolidated and trimmed our portfolio, made certain divestments of non core assets and paid down debt. In parallel, we have made some very targeted bolt on acquisitions, bringing in new critical capabilities into the group. Most importantly, EVARDI, the market leading software provider for apprehisers. And then this summer we sold Sikre for an enterprise value of 1,000,000,000 NOK. It is a landmark transaction that allows us to streamline and double down on real estate with focus on growth and improving profit.
We know how the financial position to pursue an active M and A strategy targeting bolt on M and As going forward. As a pure play real estate software and data house, we offer a unique combination of attractive data, many years of experience and domain expertise from this sector and a broad suite of software solutions for the whole ecosystem. We are trusted by all players in the industry and in Norway our data and solutions are involved in nine of 10 real estate transactions as earlier mentioned. Some of the most important customer groups are real estate agents, banking and insurance companies, construction companies and land developers. Times does not allow to go into all of these solutions and services, but let me point to some examples.
The Infolam Meglipacken is essential for real estate agents when producing their marketing materials and documentation for property sales. We are offering property condition reports, automated prospectus production solutions and digital maps. Banking and insurance. Banks and insurance companies need property data, registry data, climate data and market analysis. Be their provider.
Construction companies, in addition to some of the services just mentioned, they need property documentation and appraisal software. Land developers, digital maps, geodata information, infrastructure planning software, forest evaluation software. As you can see, we are in a go to house for everyone in the real estate sector. Going forward, we see fantastic opportunities for leveraging the unique data we process to develop new services and sell our existing products to a broader spectrum of customers. So with these remarks, I would like to hand over word to Lina who will run through the financial aspects and consequences of the Sikh divestments, as well as Q2 in more detail.
Lina, please, the floor is yours.
Lina Cecilia Stenset, CFO, Spear Group: Thank you, Perhakon, and good morning, everyone. I’m very happy to be here for the first time to present our financial results. As a reminder, we use Norwegian kroner as reporting currency, and Sigri is now kept out of the equation and recorded as profit from discontinued operations. I’ll start by taking you through some more details on the Sikri divestment, use of proceeds and our updated capital allocation framework and dividend policy. As mentioned, the divestment of Sikle to STG Partners implies an enterprise value of $1,900,000,000 was paid in cash at closing on July 24 this year and the remaining $100,000,000 will be settled in 2028.
We are also entitled to an earn out payment of $50,000,000 contingent upon CCRIS performance in 2025. This means that our balance sheet is significantly strengthened and our financial profile altered. We are taking a balanced approach with regards to use of proceeds and the Board has proposed a dividend of $2.44 per share, equaling $24,000,000 In addition, we will reduce our debt by $475,000,000 to $141,000,000 in the third quarter, down from $616,000,000 at June. This means that we are leaving headroom for an active but prudent bolt on M and A strategy. The Board has also resolved an updated dividend policy targeting a payout ratio of 40% to 60% of cash EBITDA, provided that the Group’s capital adequacy is at a satisfactory level and that net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio should stay below two point zero.
Let’s move on to the second quarter and first half results. I am pleased to report yet another quarter of double digit revenue growth and improved profitability as key KPIs like total revenues, adjusted EBITDA and cash EBITDA all continued to improve both for the second quarter and first half of the year. Keeping the focus on the second quarter, Speed Group’s revenues increased by 11% to $268,000,000 driven by improvements for all SPEAR subsidiaries. The revenue increase is 6% organic growth and $11,700,000 new revenue from EVARDI. As for the first half of the year, revenues increased 18% compared to the same period last year reaching $515,000,000 Margins and profitability across the group are increasing.
Achieved Speed solid EBITDA growth of as adjusted EBITDA increased by 28 to $42,000,000 for the second quarter and by 46% for the first half of the year. High market activity and increasing revenues is also materializing in strong growth in cash EBITDA, up 66% for the quarter to 25,000,000 Let’s look into more details in the revenue development. The 18% revenue growth in the first half is driven by continued positive development in the Norwegian real estate market, a Swedish real estate market in recovery and also including $21,000,000 in new revenue from EVARDI. Both Ambita and EVARDI are positively impacted by the high activity in the Norwegian real estate market with 13 more properties put up for sale in the first half compared to same period last year. Bulimapa continues its steady growth, while revenue growth in MEETRA is flat in local currency negatively impacted by the implementation of Open Data in Sweden from February, however, with significantly higher gross profit and data costs are as data costs are lower.
Overall, we delivered increased operational profitability across the group and all with all companies delivering solid growth in cash EBITDA. The development in cash EBITDA is in segment Other is impacted by new costs in SPEAR Data, previously known as Unbold, mainly related to new initiatives to consolidate data and drive synergies and innovation across the group. Other is also affected by the divestment of Sikli and historical numbers are restated. In the second quarter, total revenues in Ambita were up 8% to $165,000,000 A major part of the revenues correlates with the development in the Norwegian real estate market and number of properties put up for sale, which was up 4% in the quarter. As for the first half of the year, Ambita’s revenues increased 7%, in particular driven by extraordinary high activity level in the real estate market in the first quarter this year.
This led to transaction based revenues growing 5% in the second quarter and 16% in the first half of the year. Commencement of new homes is still at a low level and was down by 14% in the quarter, negatively affecting Ampitas sale of digital maps and digital real estate information. Ampita solutions for building applications and neighbor notifications still grew 20% in the quarter. Gross profit in the second quarter reached $3,000,000 and is up 6% from second quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA came in at the same level in the quarter as last year.
However, cash EBITDA increased 12%. In the second quarter, revenues in Bule Mapa were up 19 to $16,000,000 Run rate of annual recurring revenue from B2B was $55,000,000 which is up 10% from the end of second quarter last year. In addition, transaction based revenues, primarily from B2C products introduced late twenty twenty three and sold as monthly subscriptions, adds $2,500,000 to total revenue. It is positive to see that the profitability in Bulimapa is increasing. Adjusted EBITDA of $3,000,000 this quarter is up from zero in the second quarter last year, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21%.
Cash EBITDA is also improving compared to last year. Moving on to METRA. Revenue in second quarter was flat in local currency, primarily impacted by the implementation of the EU Open Data Directive. This change negatively affected revenue within GEO Data as large parts of COGS disappeared, but it had a positive effect on gross profit, which increased by 25% in the quarter. Subscription revenue declined by 10% and run rate annual recurring revenue fell 16% to $101,000,000 both due to Open Data, but again with improved profitability.
On the other hand, transaction based revenue increased by 16% to €29,000,000 in second quarter, driven by a rebound in the Swedish real estate market and higher end user volumes in banking and finance. Consulting revenues also showed strong growth, up 14% to $22,000,000 in the quarter. Profitability improved significantly with adjusted EBITDA reaching 16,000,000 and cash EBITDA climbing to $11,000,000 up from just $1,000,000 in same quarter last year. Gains reflect both increase in gross profit and the impact of cost initiatives that are showing results. Is a new segment in SPIR from September.
EVARDI owns the software EVIT, which is Norway’s most used professional software for valuation engineers. The software offers effective process support, data driven quality assurance, and a variation of different valuation reports. It allows direct interaction and sharing of information between real estate agents and valuer systems for increased security and efficiency. In the second quarter, EVADI’s revenues increased by 13% to $12,000,000 and by 25% looking at the first half. Gross profit for second quarter reached $10,000,000 making a 13% increase from the same quarter last year.
While adjusted EBITDA in the quarter declined by 31% to 4,000,000 Profitability still improved as cash EBITDA increased 23% to $2,400,000 For the first half of the year, adjusted EBITDA was down 19%, but cash EBITDA climbed by 3,300,000 reflecting stronger underlying performance. As an innovative software house development of new functionality and new features on existing products to strengthen our market leading positions and expansion of the product portfolio is vital for future growth. We expect our investments in product development to materialize in improved margins and improved cash flow yield over time. Total CapEx in the second quarter was $13,000,000 down by $1,000,000 from last year. We have an increased focus on return on investments and optimization of investments across the group.
The level of capitalization of development costs for financial year 2025 is planned to be in the range of 55,000,000 to $60,000,000 down from $81,000,000 last year with full effect of the CapEx from EVARDI and SPIR data. This is in line with guidance from previous quarters excluding Sikri. Free cash flow ended at negative $70,000,000 in the second quarter, but by positive $68,000,000 for the first half of the year. As illustrated on the left hand side of this slide, you can see that our free cash flow is impacted by seasonal fluctuations. First quarter is historically always a strong quarter in terms of free cash flow as Sikri invoices a large part of its customers in advance on a yearly basis in January.
Moving on to the illustration on the right hand side, you can see that we generated $126,000,000 in operational cash flow in first half. Investment cash flow amounts to $49,000,000 in first half and consists mainly of capitalized development costs. Financing cash flow amounted to $105,000,000 and consisted of repayment of the revolving credit facility and installment on borrowing, paid interest and payment of the principal element of leases. Speed Group’s cash balance at June was $15,000,000 However, note that $900,000,000 was received in July due to the divestment of Sikre. And with that, I’ll leave the floor for Perhoekun, who will comment on the business development in the quarter.
Perko Lundstad, CEO, Spear Group: Thank you, Alina, and very good numbers. Let’s look at the outlook. Looking ahead, we are committed to improve our margins, cash flow, and prioritizing ROI. We are already executing on NOK 10,000,000 OpEx reduction plan, which is on track for this this year. In addition, we are planning organizational measures that will underpin future OpEx reductions in the future.
We will come back to more details regarding this in due time. We also make CapEx savings and for this year, we expect 55 to 60,000,000 NOK of CapEx, down from 81,000,000 last year. Looking at the second half, we have a solid foundation for continued growth in our software business for the year as a whole. Now let me take a minute to walk through our strategic direction, which we kept very simple. Spear’s ambition is to be the trusted partner shaping the future of real estate by providing the digital infrastructure our customers rely on.
To do this, we will focus on four themes. First, unify. Spear will more and more operate as one company, which make us more focused, more efficient, and better at delivering broader and more bundled solutions to our customers. Becoming a one stop shop supplier of real estate data real estate data and software. Second, connect.
Our unique advantage is our data. We are connecting the group’s data and software into one digital infrastructure platform That becomes the foundation for analytics, AI, and the services our customers use every day. Third, innovate. On top of that foundation, we’re building new solutions. This is where AI plays a big role, helping our customers work smarter now and preparing them for what’s coming next.
And finally, expand. We’re driving growth by strengthening our products, solving more problems for existing customers, expanding products into new markets when it makes sense, and adding on smart acquisitions. So in short, unify, connect, innovate, and expand. That’s our roadmap to shaping the future of real estate. With that, we have reached the end of the presentation.
Please reach out to Lee and or myself if you have any more, these, questions. Have a great day. Thanks.
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