Earnings call transcript: Tallinna Sadam Q3 2025 reveals strong profit growth

Tallinna Sadam AS (TSM1T) reported robust financial results for the third quarter of 2025, showcasing significant growth across key financial metrics. The company's revenue reached €31.7 million, marking a 1.5% increase from the previous year, while the net profit surged by 54% to €8.6 million. The stock responded positively, with a 1.18% increase in pre-market trading, reflecting investor optimism about the company's performance and outlook.

Key Takeaways

• Tallinna Sadam's Q3 net profit increased by 54% year-over-year.
• Revenue grew to €31.7 million, driven by higher passenger volumes and tariff rates.
• The company reported an 8% rise in cargo volumes.
• Strategic developments include new cruise vessels and potential BioLNG terminal.

Company Performance

Tallinna Sadam demonstrated strong performance in Q3 2025, with notable increases in revenue and net profit. The company's strategic positioning in the Baltic maritime sector and diversified business segments contributed to its growth. Increased passenger volumes and higher tariff rates were key drivers, alongside the successful chartering of the icebreaker Botnica.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €31.7 million, up 1.5% year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA: €15.5 million, a 17% increase.
• Operating Profit: €9.6 million, a 33% rise.
• Net Profit: €8.6 million, up 54%.
• Cargo volumes increased by 8%.

Outlook & Guidance

The company anticipates continued growth in passenger numbers and a positive outlook for the cruise market, with a projected 20% increase in ship calls for 2026. While new vessel orders have been postponed due to market volatility, Tallinna Sadam remains focused on strategic investments, including a multifunctional quay in Paldiski South Harbor and potential property development projects.

Executive Commentary

Valdo Kalm, CEO, noted, "Overall, Q3 was quite okay, and the good news is that we had increased cargo volumes around 8%." CFO Andrus Ait added, "The outlook is quite good. There are already booked quays for some 20% more ship calls or vessels."

Risks and Challenges

• Market volatility affecting new vessel orders.
• Potential fluctuations in export-import dynamics.
• Uncertainty in the offshore wind power market.
• Dependency on passenger and cargo volume growth.
• Economic conditions in Estonia and surrounding regions.

Tallinna Sadam's Q3 2025 performance underscores its strong position in the maritime industry, with strategic initiatives and market trends supporting future growth. The company's ability to navigate market challenges and capitalize on opportunities will be crucial in maintaining its competitive edge.

Full transcript - Tallinna Sadam AS (TSM1T) Q3 2025:

Valdo Kalm, CEO or Senior Executive, Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn): Dear investors, my name is Valdo Kalm, and our CFO, Andrus Ait, is there, and we are ready to introduce our Q3 and nine-month results.

Andrus Ait, CFO, Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn): Good morning.

Valdo Kalm, CEO or Senior Executive, Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn): As usually, we will start from main events. Overall, Q3 was quite okay, and the good news is that we had increased cargo volumes around 8%. Also, the passenger numbers showed tiny, but still, the growth. Important is that the cruise business is doing quite well. We had, in Q3, eight new cruise vessels. I mean, there was their first visit, and then we had one new operator, Ritz-Carlton. They are, of course, the hotel chain, but they are also running their cruise business. In our own vessel business in TS Laevad, it shows a stable number of passengers. We had slight growth in cars, and then we had also slight growth in revenues. Icebreaker Botnica started a little bit later to offshore a project to Canada, but profitability was better than last year because last year we had some maintenance and repairing costs.

Therefore, all in all, Botnica did well, and he's back from Canada preparing for the winter job. Then we had two court cases. Maybe more important is MPG Agro Production bankruptcy case, where we are quite positive or optimistic that we are getting land and permission to the land back during Q1. It's quite a big plot in Muuga Harbor, and we celebrated 60 years anniversary of Tallinn-Helsinki route. Buying as business segments in Q3, as I mentioned, it's a continuous growth in passenger numbers, and important that we had more cruise vessels than last year. All in all, increase of revenues around 4%. Cargo growth came mainly from bulk and containers. Growth in bulk is quite big due to the grain, due to the travels in Rail Baltica project, and container shows definitely improvement of export-import in Estonia.

Ferry business is stable, and under the other, we see the decrease of revenues, but profitability increased in this segment quite well. There are also more precise numbers on passenger volumes Q3 and nine months. We also see the growth of passenger numbers, but also important that we have had more vessels during the nine months. Especially on cruise side, it's mainly coming from cruise side. It's around 20% more vessels on cruise business. In cargo, as I mentioned, Q3 was quite strong, and also we have some 5% decrease in nine months, and important that there is also increase of vessels around 3%. That's our ferry segment, shows stable numbers in volumes and also in profits and income, and there is Botnica, as I mentioned. We had lower utilization rate, but again, profitability was quite good in Q3.

About future, we believe that the increase of passenger numbers will continue, mainly this year supported by cruise because it's really the first time that we have also visits in November and December, about 10 ship calls in Q4. We are just now running a campaign for our industrial parks, and especially in Muuga, there are two plots available, Klauksa Street 4 and 6. It's quite a reasonable size, 3-4 hectares per plot, excellent infrastructure in place, and we believe that we will have certain interest and results by the end of the year. That's continuous work, but we really would like to see new operators, and this time more and more in production side. Last year, we also had a similar campaign, and we succeeded to sign the contract with JetGas for a BioLNG terminal, and they already got the building permit.

If everything goes well, they will start investment this year. We carry on with multifunctional quay in Paldiski. Everything goes as planned, and we're preparing to be ready in Q1 next year to be ready really for multifunctional duties or jobs to serve onshore, offshore wind farms. We still have negotiations and interesting discussions with different developers. Also, it's an excellent quay to serve better our general cargo and ro-ro and military. Therefore, if it will be ready and in use, then definitely we are going to utilize it in the first half of the year. We finalized preparation of our real estate business.

If you remember, then we're working on five detailed plans, and two of them are really ready for fixing, and it depends now from the new city government when they are ready because basically we are ready to start with tenders immediately if we will give certain documentation and fixing the papers from city government. Of course, efficiency is on the table all the time. We succeeded this year to lower our cost level. We decreased also the number of employees, and it's still a topic on the table for coming quarter and for coming year. With that, I would like to give floor to Andrus.

Andrus Ait, CFO, Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn): Thank you, Valdo. On the slide, you can see the financial results of the group for the third quarter and nine-month period. The results were positively impacted by the continuous increase in volumes, in passenger volumes and cargo volumes. Also, a positive effect came from the higher tariff rates and also the fact that we managed to charter out Botnica from 10th of September this year, supported the results positively in the third quarter. Revenue increased by 1.5% and amounted to EUR 31.7 million, and the growth is mainly attributable to higher revenues from vessel queues and also from passenger fees. The revenue items which decreased were the charter fee because Botnica was chartered out by five less days than last year in the third quarter, and also sale of electricity was slightly lower because of lower volumes, especially in cargo ports.

The changes in all other revenue streams were quite minor, so they did not impact the results so much. Adjusted EBITDA increased by almost 17% and amounted to EUR 15.5 million. The growth in euros was EUR 2.2 million. It was impacted mainly by Botnica operations. Last year, in the third quarter, we had one-off repair cost. If you remember, Botnica had the technical incident. After that, we had to sail to the shipyard and fix the problem. Therefore, we had one-off repair cost in the amount of EUR 1.5 million. The cost items which decreased in Q4 were fuel costs. Botnica's fuel costs decreased because all the costs were covered by charter, and the fuel costs of ferries also were lower because of lower price, and also the cost of electricity decreased. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 49%, and the increase was 6.3 percentage points.

We estimate this result quite good. Operating profit increased by 33% to EUR 9.6 million, and the growth on operating profit level was similar as on EBITDA level. We did not pay any income tax as the dividend payment was in the second quarter, and profit for the period was EUR 8.6 million, and the increase on this year was 54%. It was also supported by lower net financial costs, which decreased by EUR 800,000 because of lower Euribor rates. All our debts are with floating interest rate. We invested in the third quarter EUR 8.8 million, which is quite similar as last year, a slight increase here. The main investment project is the quay construction in Paldiski South Harbor, which should be completed in the first quarter next year. We also made some upgrades for other quays in our cargo ports in Muuga and in Paldiski South Harbor.

On nine-month period, revenue decreased by 1.4%, mainly because of the impacts from the segment other or Botnica operations. Botnica wasn't chartered out in the second quarter this year, so therefore the utilization rate was lower and revenue decreased, but it was offset by better results from cargo and passenger ports mainly. Therefore, the decline here was lower than the decline in the segment other. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 11%. In addition to the impacts from the third quarter, there was also on nine-month period, we received the indemnity payment from insurance company in connection with the repair works last year. This impact was EUR 900,000. In addition to that, we sold the land in Muuga Harbor for the construction of right terminal of Rail Baltica for the Rail Baltica, and this impact was also EUR 900,000.

In addition, we had some cost items which decreased fuel costs in the first quarter 2024. There was an elevated level of fuel costs in the ferry segment. This year, we did not have this impact, so it also supported the results when we compare the results between two years. There were some positive effects also from electricity costs, which decreased because of lower consumption. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached over 50%. The growth there was 5.6% on nine-month period. Income tax was EUR 5.4 million compared to EUR 3 million last year. The dividend payout remained stable, but this year we did not have this exception for the regularly paid dividends. Last year, we had a lower tax rate for those dividends. This year, this exception was abolished, and therefore the costs were higher.

The profit for the period increased by 27% on nine-month period and amounted to almost EUR 19 million. Net financial costs decreased because of lower Euribor. During the nine-month period, we invested EUR 20.8 million. EUR 15 million of that was made in Baldiski South Harbor to construct a multifunctional quay there. We also had dry-docking for two of our ferries and also regular dry-docking for Botnica in May. We improved one container quay in Muuga Harbor to serve better the container ships and also made some IT investments. These are the results of our business segments or the results by segment-wise. In the third quarter, we see that revenue increased in three segments out of four. In passenger segment, the increase in revenue is attributable to higher vessel queues because of the higher tariff rates and also passenger fees increased.

The increase on EBITDA level was similar, so the growth was transmitted to the EBITDA level, which means that the costs were quite flat. In cargo harbors, revenue increased by 3% or by EUR 200,000, mainly because of higher cargo volumes. The growth on EBITDA level was even higher because we had lower costs, especially personnel expenses, because of our efficiency measures, which already gave us the results in the third quarter. In the ferry segment, revenue increased a bit, but there were different impacts. Some part of the contractual fee is indexable based on consumer price index. This part increased, but the other part is indexable based on the fuel index, and this part decreased, so they kind of level out each other. Therefore, there was not any big change in revenues in the third quarter. EBITDA decreased a bit.

We had one-off development costs and research costs to achieve better efficiency of the ferries in the future, and also the personnel expenses increased because of the agreement with labor unions. In the segment other, revenue decreased a bit because of the fact that the charter period was five days shorter, but the profitability increased significantly as we did not have this year one-off repair costs. In addition, last year, we had to rent special equipment for the summer charter project. This year, we did not have to rent any additional equipment, so this also helped to decrease the costs this year. On the nine-month period, the results are quite similar. I would bring out the cargo harbor where the growth on EBITDA level was also supported by the sale of the land in Muuga Harbor. This impact was EUR 900,000. In passenger harbors, revenue increased on the nine-month period.

Also, due to the higher number of cruise ship vessel calls, we have had 115 calls this year. Last year, it was 100 calls during the nine-month, so this also supported strongly our results. In ferry segment, results are quite similar as in the third quarter, so the explanations are also the same. In the segment other, revenue decreased by EUR 4 million. This is due to the lower charter period, especially in the second quarter. Despite the revenue decrease, EBITDA increased because of lower repair costs, because of lower rental costs, and because of the fact that we got indemnity from insurance. All in all, EBITDA increased by EUR 400,000. On cash flow side, cash from operating activities increased by EUR 3 million because the receipts from the sale of services increased.

There was some negative effect on this row from the income tax, which increased, but all in all, cash from operating activities increased. Cash used in investing activities was EUR 10 million. To explain that, in the first quarter this year, we got EUR 22 million from deposits, which this money we placed at the deposit at the end of last year, and in the first quarter this year, we received it back. Therefore, the one-off impact from the in addition, the investments this year were EUR 13 million lower than last year. Also, sale of the land in the amount of EUR 4.8 million supported positively this row in cash flow. Free cash flow was EUR 53 million, and cash used in financing activities was minus EUR 26 million compared to the EUR 15 million last year.

Last year, in May, we took the new loan, and therefore, there was some positive cash flow from there. At the same time, this year, the loan repayments and interest payments have been lower because of lower interest rates, and some loan agreements came to an end during the last year. Net cash flow was EUR 27 million, and net debt at the end of the period was more positive. At the same time, the outstanding loan was similar, and the positive effect comes from the fact that we had more cash on bank accounts. On financial position, there are no big changes compared to the year-end period. Cash on bank accounts increased a bit because of positive cash flow. Non-current assets increased a bit because we invested more than depreciation and amortization.

Other current assets decreased because the non-current assets held for sale decreased as we sold the land in Muuga Harbor. Equity is quite similar because the profit of the period was similar to the dividend payout, and debt decreased because of loan repayments. Other liabilities are a bit higher because the amount of accounts payable was bigger in connection with the investments. With that, we will conclude our presentation. Like always, we have some extra slides. If you have any deeper interest, you can browse them later. Now, we will take a short break. We have got some questions upfront. Those questions, we will address at first, and then we'll answer the questions which you can submit through Teams. We will pack in a couple of minutes. All right. We are back.

Some questions and some additional from current web seminar, but I will start from a previous seminar that we had in Estonian language. What is the outlook for Botnica charter days for Q4 and next year? Botnica is back. Botnica returned at the end of last week, and now he starts a regular project from the middle of December as an icebreaker here in Estonia. Therefore, everything is as planned, and if we are talking about the charter days, then it's quite similar to last year. For the next year, we are already working on that. We have negotiations with five, six different companies, and it's really a very competitive landscape. Offshore business is fluctuating a lot, but of course, we are already preparing for the next spring-summer season. The second question was regarding the fuel costs of Botnica in the third quarter.

Was it the one-off practice that fuel costs were fully covered by the charter in the third quarter 2025? No, this is regular practice, actually, that the charter covers the fuel costs, but last year, the ship or vessel had to sail to the dock, to the shipyard, and due to that, we had an elevated level of costs last year. This is the explanation for the fuel costs of Botnica. What is the size in square meters of the two detailed plans that are awaiting acceptance or fixing? All right. We are planning to introduce or open a tender in a very first stage for 20,000 sq m on this one detailed plan, plus another 30,000, altogether then 50,000 sq m, but it really depends on next year's market situation. All in all, we are planning to have some 300,000 sq m in this area.

Next question from current webinarium. What is your financial target for Paldiski investment in more detail? What is the return of investment ROI expectations for the new quay or for the new harbor? Our expectation is quite similar. When we made the business plan, I would like to remember that it's a very multifunctional quay, and our average ROI is around 8%. From 6-10%, even more, it depends on a quay, but here, with this investment of project, we're waiting to average the similar ROI. What could be the annual income from the first property development project? Unfortunately, it's too early to say because we are still deciding which plot we put on the market or where we arrange the tender, and let's say the square meters between the housing and offices are depending on the plot, so it's too early to say the exact number.

The last question: could it make sense to postpone the new vessel order if the outlook for the offshore wind power construction market is weak? Yes, we can comment on the question that we definitely will not make the investment decision this year. We are definitely analyzing the market. We see the trends, and we can agree that the market is volatile at the moment, and demand is a bit lower compared to the situation when we started the project or these analyses. Therefore, we can comment that the decision is currently a bit postponed. No, there is one more. Next question: could you please comment on the outlook for the upcoming cruise market season? That means summer 2026. The outlook is quite good. There are already booked quays for some 20% more ship calls or vessels. Therefore, we see the increase of vessels and, of course, hopefully, passengers.

Yeah. It seems that we have done with the questions. Wish you all the best and see you next time. Thank you for listening and see you.

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