STECF (STECF) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter presentation for 2026. It has been a strong quarter with a high activity level, and we continue to deliver on our strategy to drive growth at a high pace across our geographies. And at the same time, we also continue to strengthen our financial position. In the quarter, our operating portfolio has increased as several projects have moved into commercial operation. We have improved near-term growth visibility with new projects reaching both backlog and also reaching into construction. And finally, we have also strengthened our liquidity and have reduced our corporate debt. And our available liquidity currently stands at NOK 6.1 billion. On the market side, demand for energy is growing and Scatec is operating in countries with strong and increasing underlying demand for clean, reliable and affordable renewable energy. And renewable energy is the most competitive source of power generation in our markets, and we continue to see attractive long-term market opportunities and now more than ever as energy security is increasingly becoming important. So today, I will start by going through a bit on the macro situation. I'll then go through the highlights of the quarter. Hans Jacob will go through the financials. And then at the end, we will open up for questions. So in terms of the macro situation, focus on energy security and cost competitiveness reinforce the case for renewables. As shown to the left, many of our core markets remain highly dependent on imported fossil fuels, which increases both cost and supply risk. Recent geopolitical developments and a significant increase in the price of fossil fuels have reinforced this dynamic. And this is a stark reminder of the risk of being exposed to fuel imports and is driving an increased focus on domestic, reliable and predictable energy sources. And at the same time, economics are clearly moving in the favor of renewables. To the right, you can see that solar and wind are the most competitive sources of power and with declining battery costs, renewable energy is able to also deliver dispatchable and baseload type of power. The recent developments in fossil fuel markets will strengthen the case for renewables. And renewables demand is no longer only driven by sustainability. It is driven by energy security and cost competitiveness. And this is expected to accelerate deployment of renewables across the globe, and Scatec is uniquely positioned in high-growth import-dependent markets where the need for affordable and reliable power is the strongest. And in our markets, we are delivering energy faster, cheaper and with greater reliability than the conventional alternatives. Egypt and our 1.1 gigawatt Obelisk project is here a clear example. With strong execution and diligent cost control, we have advanced the project from PPA signing to operations in less than two years. We are already supplying electricity to the Egyptian grid from the first phase of the project. And at the same time, Egypt still relies on gas for close to 90% of its electricity, leaving it highly exposed to expensive LNG imports. At current gas prices, our project, the Obelisk project will deliver significant annual savings in the range of $300 million on an annual basis. And this is before we also consider the volatility and supply risks associated with fossil fuels imports. And as a reference, remember that the total CapEx for Obelisk project is in the range of $600 million. So from a mathematical economical point of view, we're talking about a two-year payback on the investment. And this fact is also clear to the authorities in Egypt and also in other countries and other markets where we operate, and they look to increase targets and accelerate the deployment of renewables. And overall, as I said, this is not only about sustainability any longer, but providing cheaper power, faster delivery and improved energy security. This is a combination I see as a strong driver of growth for Scatec going forward. Now let me take you through the highlights of the quarter. We delivered group revenues of NOK 1.6 billion and EBITDA of NOK 774 million. We've had good progress on our projects under construction, and we recognized NOK 695 million in revenues and NOK 100 million in EBITDA. And this quarter, we realized a gross margin in the D&C segment of 22%, and this is due to a contingency release of NOK 80 million, which is related to the completion of the first phase of the Obelisk project in Egypt. And the underlying gross margin in the D&C segment continues to be in line with our guidance. Further, our growth engine continues to run at high speed. We finalized construction of three projects during the quarter in Egypt and in Tunisia. In total, 683 megawatts of solar capacity and 200 megawatt hours of battery storage capacity. This increased our total capacity under generation now to more than 5 gigawatts. We also started construction of another five projects across South Africa, Colombia, Romania and the Philippines in total, 575 megawatts of generation capacity and 80 megawatt hours of battery capacity. And finally, we also strengthened our financial position. We're paying $30 million on our vendor financing, and we renegotiated our RCF at improved terms. This brings our total available liquidity, as I said, to NOK 6.1 billion. With that, let's look at the Power Production segment. We generated 1,046 gigawatt hours in the quarter. This is up from 881 gigawatt hours last year after adjusting for divested assets. New projects contributed with 241 gigawatt hours. This is from the Mmadinare project in Botswana, Grootfontein in South Africa, also Sidi Bouzid, Tozeur in Tunisia and the first phase of Obelisk in Egypt. Revenues from power production amounted to NOK 929 million. This is down from NOK 1.1 billion same quarter last year, excluding divested assets. In terms of underlying operations, new projects contributed with NOK 68 million during the quarter in terms of revenues, while we had lower revenues in the Philippines compared to a very strong quarter last year. The revenues in the quarter, they were also impacted by several specific events. One power plant in Ukraine continues to be out of operation and our Apodi plant in Brazil experienced some downtime during a lightning strike. We reversed an accounting gain of NOK 56 million related to the divestment in Vietnam as payment conditions for this earn-out was not met. While in the same quarter last year, we recognized a positive one-off related to a tariff true-up. And finally, we also had a negative FX effect relative to last quarter as the NOK has strengthened against our main operating currencies. So in summary, our large growth portfolio is starting now to enter operations. And going forward, this will contribute to growing and even more resilient portfolio of contracted revenues going forward. Let me now turn to the Philippines. We continue to see significant strength of having a flexible portfolio shown by the financial contribution from the ancillary services also this quarter. Power production decreased by 28% to 107 gigawatt hours in the quarter, while revenues by comparison only fell by 13%. Revenues reached NOK 279 million and EBITDA ended at NOK 231 million, which is at the higher end of the guided range. Philippines is a strong cash-generating market and now with four energy storage projects in construction, we continue to add battery capacity to the attractive ancillary services market to strengthen our position going forward here. Then in terms of construction, we currently have 1.4 gigawatts of solar and 587 gigawatt hours of battery storage projects under construction. This also includes the release platform, where we continue to see very strong progress. Since last reporting, we've had a very good construction progress across the portfolio. We recorded, as I said, D&C revenues of NOK 695 million, and this is largely driven by the progress we've seen on the Obelisk project as well as on the Mogobe BESS project. As I said, gross margin came in at 22%. And after reaching commercial operation for the first phase of Obelisk, we released a contingency of NOK 80 million. This is reflecting the cost-efficient and swift execution that we've had on this project. Adjusting for this, the underlying gross margin was 11%, and this is in line with our communicated targets. Also Sidi Bouzid, Tozeur in Tunisia came into operation during the quarter, adding another 120 megawatts into our operating portfolio. And looking forward or looking forward to the second quarter this year, we also aim to reach COD for both Urucuia in Brazil, as well as two battery storage projects in the Philippines. As for the rest of the construction portfolio, we expect to see a steady flow of new projects coming into operation over the next 12 months. I'm very pleased with the progress that we're currently seeing on the construction area and incredibly proud of the teams, the large teams that are making this happen. And at the end of the quarter, the remaining contract value that we have in the D&C segment has increased to NOK 4.2 billion, up from NOK 1.8 billion at the end of last quarter. So we also see that, that is increasing as we move projects into construction. And we expect to continue to realize a gross margin of 10% to 12% on this portfolio. And behind this, obviously, we continue to have and we continue to mature additional projects that will move into construction also over the next quarters. So now let's also take a look at Lyra. And during the quarter, we announced construction start for our first project in the Lyra JV, the 255 megawatts Thakadu project. And we have established the Lyra platform together with our local partners, STANLIB and Standard Bank, and it's an important part of how we are positioning ourselves for the future in the South African market. Through the platform, we seek to capitalize on the ongoing deregulation in the power sector in South Africa. And in Lyra, we are able to build a scalable platform for power production and PPA aggregation. This allows us to serve multiple C&I off-takers at attractive tariffs, and this is compared to our traditional model in South Africa with public tenders and Eskom as the sole off-takers. And we expect both these parts of the market to continue and provide significant opportunities going forward. The Lyra platform benefits from Scatec's development, EPC and operational capabilities, and we extract margins from providing these services to the platform. At the same time, we benefit from strong financial partners, which provides equity and debt funding for the project at pre-agreed terms. So this is a model that allows us to grow with limited balance sheet exposure while still capturing value across the full value chain of our activities. And importantly, it positions us well to benefit from what we see as a structural shift in the South African market going forward. So let us then also have a look at our growth portfolio. We have an all-time high backlog of 5.9 gigawatts of generation capacity. This includes projects mainly in Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and the Philippines. And when the construction and backlog projects have been completed over the next few years, we will reach more than 12 gigawatts of generation capacity. This is increasing our capacity relative to what we have today by almost 2.5x. In addition, behind this, we have a pipeline also of 5.9 gigawatts of projects that also will mature over time and contribute to future growth. In addition to our growth portfolio, it now also on generation capacity, it also now includes battery storage. These are either in hybrid projects or as stand-alone installations. And here, we have a backlog of 4.6 gigawatt hours also across South Africa, Egypt and the Philippines. Together, this project pipeline provides great visibility on significant value-creating short-term growth. And we will continue to grow on a self-funded basis, and we will continue to stay disciplined relative to our return requirements. So with that, I will hand over to Hans Jacob to take us through the financials.

Thank you, Terje. And we delivered a strong results across the group, high D&C activity and a good quarter in the Philippines. I'll walk you through the group financials and the performance of our operating segments, and I will also cover further improvements to our capital structure. Looking at the quarter on group level. We continue to generate solid revenues from our D&C activity, which has a positive effect on the proportion of financials. Consolidated revenues was NOK 1 billion compared to NOK 1.8 billion in the same quarter last year. The EBITDA reached NOK 729 million compared to NOK 1.5 billion, and the reduction is mainly driven by the divestment gains in the same quarter last year. This is in line with our long-term self-funded strategy. Our proportionate revenues was NOK 1.6 billion compared to NOK 2.4 billion in the same quarter last year, and proportionate EBITDA was NOK 774 million compared to NOK 1.4 billion year-on-year. Now let me take you through the segments. Starting with power production, revenues was close to NOK 900 million compared to NOK 1.6 billion in the same quarter last year, mainly explained by the divestment gains of NOK 426 million booked in the first quarter 2025. EBITDA was NOK 702 million. And the last 12 months, we have delivered NOK 4.5 billion in revenues and NOK 3.5 billion in EBITDA. Overall, we are very pleased with the value generating from our operating assets. In the D&C segment, activity levels continue to increase. Proportionate revenues was NOK 695 million compared to NOK 751 million last year, and the EBITDA was NOK 100 million compared to NOK 26 million. This was driven by NOK 80 million contingency release from the Obelisk phase 1. The contingency release is a result of timely and cost-efficient execution of the project. The trend from the last 12 months confirms the long-term strength and scalability of our D&C business. D&C revenues in the last 12 months was NOK 5.9 billion with a steady increase over the last five quarters. Rolling EBITDA ended at NOK 535 million with contributions from high-margin projects, contingencies and disciplined cost control. Our free cash flow position ended at NOK 2.6 billion in the quarter, and this is due to the following movements. We received NOK 94 million in distributions from power plants, generated NOK 72 million EBITDA from D&C and corporate, invested NOK 195 million in growth projects and repaid NOK 286 million corporate debt and paid NOK 109 million of interest. This is compared to NOK 165 million in the same quarter last year. Following the quarter, we have refinanced our RCF at improved terms and increased the limit from $230 million to $350 million. The increased limit provides a comfortable liquidity buffer and will support the execution of our record high near-term growth portfolio across geographies. With the increased limit, we have a total available liquidity of NOK 6.1 billion, which provides a solid liquidity buffer to deliver on our strategic targets. We continue to strengthen our capital structure. Gross corporate debt was reduced to NOK 6.5 billion following a repayment of NOK 286 million of the vendor note. This is in line with our strategy to deleverage on corporate level to increase financial flexibility and reduce interest costs. On project level, the gross debt increased by NOK 0.4 billion to NOK 19.5 billion due to drawdown of debt on new growth projects. Net debt for projects in operation increased by NOK 1.1 billion as Obelisk phase 1 reached COD during the quarter and net debt for projects under construction was correspondingly reduced by NOK 1.2 billion. Cash held in our SPVs increased by NOK 400 million to NOK 2.8 billion. Then having a look at the outlook. In our Power Production segment, we estimate a full year power production between 505 and 545 terawatt hours. Our estimated full year EBITDA is reduced by NOK 200 million to a midpoint of NOK 3.75 billion, mainly due to NOK 150 million of negative foreign exchange effect as the NOK has strengthened against our main operating currencies. The largest effect relates to dollars, ZAR, and the Philippine peso. NOK 56 million reversal of the divestment gain related to the Vietnam earnout. And for the second quarter, we expect a total power production between 1150 and 1250 gigawatt hours and EBITDA in the Philippines of NOK 150 million to NOK 200 million. We note increased uncertainty in the Philippines due to global geopolitical developments and El Nino impacting the second quarter EBITDA estimate and the full year '26 proportionate EBITDA. In our D&C segment, the remaining contract value has increased by NOK 2.4 billion to NOK 4.2 billion as new projects are moved to construction. The estimated gross margin is unchanged at 10% to 12% on average across the portfolio of projects under construction. For corporate, the expected full year EBITDA is unchanged at negative NOK 125 million to NOK 135 million. And these estimates reflect a strong base of operating assets, high construction activity and healthy cost control. And then, Terje, I'll leave it to you to take us through the summary.

Thank you very much, Hans Jacob. So a couple of key points for the quarter. We continue to build and we now have an all-time high growth portfolio with 5.9 gigawatts of projects in backlog related to generation capacity and 4.6 gigawatt hours of energy storage projects. We've also shown that we have very strong execution evidenced through the fact that we have released NOK 80 million in contingency from the Obelisk project, and we continue to progress well on the projects that we have in construction. And finally, we are improving our financial position. We have paid down corporate debt as well as we have refinanced our RCF. And in summary, what we see currently is that the case for economics, the case for renewables is strengthening in the current situation, economics is competitive, and we can provide flexible, dispatchable energy. We have an all-time high growth portfolio and the opportunities beyond this portfolio is also improving. And we also see that we have the financial flexibility to realize both this portfolio and further projects beyond this. So I believe that Scatec currently is in a uniquely strong position to continue to capture and realize value-creating growth. Thank you. Then we will open up for questions.

Yes. We will then move to the Q&A session. We will start with questions here in the room and then move on to the ones listening online. So any questions from the audience here in the room? -- seems to be no questions. So then we will move on to the questions from the online listeners. We have one question regarding the Obelisk, National Bank of Egypt coming in as a new owner. Following the transaction, National Bank of Egypt will have an economic interest of 20% in the project. What's the financial impact from this transaction?

Yes. So the National Bank of Egypt is coming in at pre-agreed terms before we reach commercial operation for the full plant. The way we look at this is that getting the National Bank of Egypt in as an equity investor is significantly derisking the project because they are taking dividends in local currency. And already when we started construction of this project, we have optimized the project in terms of the return levels that are acceptable for the other equity investors. There is no further accounting impact of this transaction beyond the fact, obviously, that our equity is being released back to us.

I also think it's a testimony of the attractiveness of this project that we actually have the National Bank of Egypt joining with equity. This is a fast-paced development project. It's a fantastic project ahead of schedule and very important for the Egyptian economy and the economic development in the area. So we are quite proud to have them with equity.

I mean, I have three high-quality co-sponsors in the project. We have obviously EDF from France that joined us into the project. We have Norfund here in Norway, and we now have the largest commercial bank in Egypt joining into the project as well.

Thank you. Next question from Jorgen Lande. Good morning. On the lowered power production guidance, what are the key factors lowering the full year production as Q1 production ended in the very high end of the guided range?

Yes. The key factors impacting our guidance for the full year it's mainly two things. One is uncertainty on the power production levels in the Philippines in the second half related to the potential El Nino effect. And the second element is the fact that the Ukraine project, which is currently out of operation is expected to come into operation a bit later in the year than we first had anticipated.

Another question from Sindre Sorbo. Could you elaborate why you're not notching up the D&C margin guidance?

The D&C margin guidance is based on the contracts that we have entered into on the EPC side, and they're based on the forecasted cost levels in those projects that we are constructing. Obviously, when -- obviously, in all of those estimates, there are some levels of contingencies as you would always do in the EPC business, and we will only release that when we see that the risks have been taken out of the project.

One question about our debt. You claim that you have reduced debt, but the total debt has increased. Can you elaborate?

Yes. I think he's referring to -- on project level, we have high gearing, nonrecourse project debt, and this will continue to grow with the success of the company growing. On corporate, you should expect lower debt as you also have seen in this quarter.

One question from Anders. Referring to our guidance and the uncertainty we mentioned there in the Philippines, asking what does that mean? Is that risk on the upside or the downside? Spot prices in the Philippines are up quite a lot.

That is correct. So with the -- as the suspension of the WESM market has been ended beginning of May, we -- on a short-term basis, we expect to see prices going up. And then I think it's difficult to foresee exactly how long this is going to last, including the war in the Middle East, which has a huge impact on prices. Currently, in the Philippines, we are in the drier part of the season. And when we move into May and June, we will come into the more wet part of the season. So obviously, how long the prices are going to stay high relative to when we get more water is going to impact how this is going to have -- how this is going to affect Scatec on the economic side and the financial side. So that's why we're saying the uncertainty is increased. And it's important to emphasize that it's also uncertainty on the upside, and it could also be positive effects from this.

A question from Anis Zgaya, ODDO BHF. On the Vietnam earn-out reversal, could you clarify what specific conditions were not met and whether this reflects timing issues or more structural shortfall versus initial assumptions?

Well, the specific element related to that was a reversal of a tariff reduction that the government in Vietnam implemented retroactively related to a project. And we will get paid more if that had been carried out. The reversal had been carried out, but it was not done so within the time zone that we had identified for that to happen.

Thank you. Another one from Anis. On FX, how should we think about sensitivities going forward? And how much of the NOK 150 million impact could be reversed if NOK weakens?

Well, I think the reference to FX in the quarter on consolidated, there was an FX loss of NOK 69 million. This was related to the relationship between euros and dollars. On the full-year guidance, we have corrected for the FX loss in the quarter. So hopefully, that was answering the question. Could you repeat it, Andreas, to make sure that we fulfilled?

Well, it's basically how much of the NOK 150 million that could potentially be reversed if the NOK weakens.

I don't think I have a specific number for that.

Okay. We have the next question also from Anis. New projects are ramping up nicely. Should we expect a more visible uplift in EBITDA contribution from these assets already in H2 2026? Could this offset FX impact?

Obviously, in our outlook for the year, we are taking into consideration that new projects will come online. So the projects that we are currently having in construction, they are all represented in terms of also the power production revenues for the year based on when we anticipate and when we have guided that those projects will come into operation.

I think that's the final question as of now. So with that, I think we end today's presentation, and thank you very much for listening.

Thank you.