HusCompagniet A/S

HusCompagniet A/S

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Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 1, 2026

Operator

Welcome to HusCompagniet Holding's Q1 2026 conference call. Today's call is being recorded.

If you have any objections to this, please disconnect your line. All participants will be in a listen-only mode throughout the presentation, and afterwards there will be a question-and-answer session.

To ask a question, please press 5 * on your telephone keypad. I will now hand the call over to speakers.

Please begin.

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

Thank you, and thank you all for joining us today for the presentation of HusCompagniet's Q1 result. My name is Martin Ravn-Nielsen, I'm CEO of the company.

By my side on this call is CFO Allan Auning-Hansen. As usual, I will start with the market condition, please go to slide 2.

In the first quarter of '26, we saw continued interest in house building, despite the ongoing conflicts in the world around us. Consumers were still cautious, and the consumer confidence remained volatile.

It has the damped sales trend from year-end continue in the first 2 months of '26. We were therefore pleased to see a positive trend in March and into April based on more leads and higher sale as well.

The macroeconomic condition in Denmark market remained solid. We noted an unchanged high employment rate, slightly declined core inflation, and stable long interest rates.

Still, we are focused on the geopolitical situation and the development in the Middle East very closely. We are ready to take the necessary commercial steps to alleviate its potential impact.

This could be on raw material prices, inflation, and consumer sentiment. Far, we have seen few price adjustments from our main suppliers.

We have increased prices slightly in April and are keeping an eye on the situation. All in all, we remain cautiously optimistic for the Danish detached market in '26.

We are ready to pursue the opportunities we continuing to see in a volatile market with low visibility. On slide 3, Allan will take us through the highlights for Q1.

Allan Auning-Hansen

Thank you, Martin. We delivered a good performance in the light of harsh weather conditions in the first quarter.

The detached segment was significantly impacted by the unusually long and cold winter season. Still, we generated revenue growth of 25% in line with expectations and driven by all segments.

The positive development was due to execution on our strong order backlog, which was fueled by the sales pick-up in the first 3 quarters of 2025. At the same time, average selling prices in detached and wooden houses were higher.

Detached, the average selling prices increased across Denmark, and with satisfactory traction and contribution also from form/u/one, our high-end brand. The semi-detached business, the growth was driven by higher revenue from work-in-progress on several projects.

To further support sales and the consumer experience for private house builders, we opened a new showroom in Søborg outside Copenhagen. The new showroom is based on the same curated and guided approach as our recently inaugurated showroom in Horsens.

Gross profit increased by 5% to 130 million, as we saw good progress in detached and wooden houses. The margin declined to 16.4% from 19.5% in the comparison period.

The development was driven by all segments with an expected impact from the 3 challenged B2B projects. We had expected lower margins in detached as well, but this was further accentuated by the cold winter.

The harsh winter entailed increased construction costs in the detached business in particular, whereas the effects were minor in semi-detached, where we can catch up on potential delays during a longer construction phase. We may see some of the costs of the winter measures run into Q2 and Q3 in the Danish businesses.

EBITDA came in at 18 million compared to 17 million last year, and the margin was slightly lower at 2.3% compared to 2.6% last year. The decline reflects the lower gross margin and was partly countered by an improved SG&A ratio based on a strong cost focus.

EBIT amounted to 5 million against 6 million in Q1 last year. Free cash flow was negative 97 million against negative 14 million last year.

The change was driven by higher net working capital and timing of deliveries. Let's go to slide 4 for an update on execution of our revised strategy for the semi-detached business.

3 weeks ago, we announced the divestment of our factory in Esbjerg to our trusted supplier, Nordic Wood Industries. The sale followed our review of the semi-detached business and our decision to change the market approach.

We have shifted our focus to improve performance and regain profitability ahead of growth. The divestment was completed for an enterprise value of 55 million on a cash- and debt-free basis and completed at announcement.

All 93 employees at the factory have been transferred to the new owner on existing terms. Based on preliminary figures, the transaction will reduce our net interest-bearing debt by 56 million in 2026 and entail an accounting loss of 68 million recognized as special items in Q2 2026.

As part of the agreement, we entered into a 3-year strategic partnership with Nordic Wood Industries for the supply of all prefabricated wooden elements and wooden roof cassettes for activities in Denmark. The divestment of our factory in Esbjerg is fully in line with our revised strategy, going back to the core.

It means that we will be more asset-light and engage as a developer in selected low-complexity projects with clearly defined risk profiles, execution frameworks, and counterparties. We will also pursue opportunities to build on own land and collaborate with carefully selected partners, where we develop projects on their land plots.

With this transaction and the improved processes, as well as a new head of the semi-detached business in place, we now have a foundation for regaining profitability in the future. Let's flip to slide 5, where Martin will give an overview of sales in the first quarter.

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

Thanks, Allan. Sales in detached was a bit lower than expected in the quarter.

The 44% decrease overall was caused mainly by the semi-detached and wooden houses segments after a very strong comparison period affected by a semi-detached order of 96 houses units on the Danish island of Bornholm and the B2B contract in Sweden of 15 units. In addition, detached sales in the comparison period were positively affected by a pick-up in the market sentiment.

As I mentioned in the introduction, detached was impacted by lower sales in the first 2 months of the year, but we saw signs of improvement in March and April. I also want to stress that the large decline in semi-detached is fully in line with our revised strategy for the business with a focus on improvement, performance, and profitability ahead of growth.

When we decided to review our B2B strategy, we held back on new sales activities. This will have an impact on 2026, which will be a transition year for this part of our business.

Please turn to slide 6 and update on deliveries. In Q1 '26, we delivered 182 houses.

This was a decrease of 7%, reflecting fewer deliveries in semi-detached and moderate increase in detached and wooden houses. As we have already covered, the cold winter impact timing of deliveries, but to an even higher extent, it impact the ability to start working on certain projects.

This may also impact the development in Q2 going into Q3. Please turn to slide 7 and our order backlog.

We maintained a solid net order backlog in Q1 of 2.1 billion and on par with the same period last year. The development reflected the strong sales performance in the first 9 months of '25 and the order intake in the first quarter of this year.

Detached account for 59% of the total order backlog, semi-detached for 36%, and wooden house for the remaining 5%. Please turn to slide 8 for Allan's closing comments on the outlook.

Allan Auning-Hansen

Thank you again, Martin. We are confirming the 2026 outlook based on the performance in the past quarter.

It means that we are guiding for revenue of 3 to 3.3 billion, assuming that we deliver between 1,000 and 1,300 houses. EBITDA is expected in the range of 70 to 130 million, and EBIT of 15 to 75 million.

The earnings outlook is provided before special items, which are seen to come to an expense of 68 million based on preliminary figures after the divestment of the factory in Esbjerg. While the overall Danish macro trends remain sound, we are very aware of the low visibility, continued volatility, and a higher price sensitivity in our market.

Therefore, I would also like to stress that our guidance is based on no severe deterioration of the geopolitical tension in the Middle East causing disruption of supply chains or significantly increased raw material prices from the levels we have seen in Q1. All other assumptions are unchanged and can be found in the annual report on 2025 and on this slide.

Our leverage was 4.9 at the end of quarter, up from 3.2 in 2025. The change was driven by lower EBITDA over the last 12 months, timing of deliveries, and increased working capital.

Thank you for listening in. Now please turn to the next slide for the Q&A session.

To ask a question, please press 5 * on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing 5 * again.

Operator

The first question is from the line of Kristian Tornøe from SEB. Please go ahead.

Your line will now be unmuted.

Kristian Tornøe

Thank you. A couple of questions from my side.

Maybe starting with the weather impact. Just want to probably better understand your commentary that the effects here can drag into Q2 and Q3.

Can you sort of talk us through the process and how the temperatures in January and February impacts your work in Q2 and Q3 so we sort of understand the dynamics going forward here?

Allan Auning-Hansen

Sure. Thank you for your question, Kristian.

Based on the weather impact we experienced in Q1, some of our processes have been delayed on houses that we're going to deliver in Q2 and Q3. Therefore, in order to secure the best possible delivery and support our customers, it might add additional costs to subcontractors in order to reach our delivery plans.

Kristian Tornøe

Makes sense, great. Then another question.

If we look at houses delivered on own land in detached, it was down to 2% in Q1, which is at least for the period we have available in your data sheet the low point. What is the level of houses sold?

I guess that would sort of indicate where this ratio should go and when do you expect to sort of increase this proportion?

Allan Auning-Hansen

Also again, thank you very much, Kristian. It's a really good question.

What we are currently looking into is our portfolio of options on own land, and we therefore see some interesting opportunities in later 2026, ongoing in 2027. Of course, it takes some time from the exploration of that own land and owning that own land until you start constructing and delivering on that own land.

You're absolutely right, it is a historically low number for HusCompagniet, and has been an effect of the lower tendering of own land historically and the fact that we haven't acquired any significant own land for the past 3, 4 years.

Kristian Tornøe

If I understand you correctly, we shouldn't really expect this ratio to move up materially at least this year. We need to get into '27 before it's realistic that you can sort of make a step change here?

Allan Auning-Hansen

That's where we currently see a step change is possible, yeah. It's of course also something that impacts our margins when deliveries on own land are lower.

Kristian Tornøe

Exactly. All right.

Then on your free cash flow and net debt, obviously your financial leverage took a big jump up in the quarter. Firstly maybe a commentary of whether this brings you in any issues considering your covenants and also how to think about your leverage going forward.

Obviously the Esbjerg divestment will help a bit, but how should we think about net working capital development as well going forward?

Allan Auning-Hansen

I would say there are some various perspectives on this. One thing is, we are behind with some deliveries in Q1.

Secondly, our leverage ratio is also impacted from the write-downs that we made in Q3. As the leverage is calculated on last 12-month EBITDA over net debt as per the balance sheet date.

The last 12-month EBITDA is negatively impacted from those write-downs in Q3. We do expect leverage to increase going into Q2 as well, after which we expect a path towards normalization towards the end of the year.

Kristian Tornøe

Makes sense. Then just lastly, any changes to your organization since we last spoke or any pricing actions taken as a consequence of what's going on in the world?

Allan Auning-Hansen

I would say in terms of organization, we haven't made any additional changes. We are constantly monitoring the macroeconomic environment that we're currently in, but no changes made.

Secondly, we increased our prices in April across Denmark, and we did that to facilitate some of the potential price increases that we may assume coming in the future. As for now, we do see limited price increases on the raw materials that we're currently using in our production of the houses.

Kristian Tornøe

Maybe just a follow-up. Far the price increases you have done more than outweighs what you have seen so far on supply increases.

Is that fair to say?

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

The price increases is a balance of what we see and what we might see going on in the future. The price increases reflects to some extent a guestimate on where we are going and what we have actually seen.

Kristian Tornøe

Great. Thank you.

That was all for me.

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Anders Preetzmann from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

Your line will now be unmuted.

Anders Preetzmann

Yes, hello Martin and Allan, and thank you for taking my questions too. Just going back to the input costs here.

I hear you mentioned that you've not seen any significant impact so far from your suppliers, which I think is slightly different from what we've heard from other players in the construction space in Europe. Can you please just give us again a rundown of what you've seen from your suppliers so far on potential input cost increases?

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

Hi Anders. The cost base of our houses is around 50% of materials and 50% is the blue-collar workers.

What we're seeing now is some materials who have significant increase in the cost prices. If we are taking the few things and the amount in the total cost of the house, it is actually for now not that much.

We are, as Allan mentioned, monitoring that week by week and all the time is increasing the sales prices so that it is reflected to the development in the costs.

Allan Auning-Hansen

For now maybe if I could just add, we increased prices slightly here in April and have not for now planned any additional price increases.

Anders Preetzmann

All right. Thank you.

Then just to be clear, if we were to see any price increases on the cost side, the contracts which have already been signed on the detached houses, you would not be able to mitigate any further price increases onto already signed contracts, correct?

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

We'll put it like that. The impact would be very, very limited.

Anders Preetzmann

Very clear. Thank you.

If we go back to the gross margin for the detached segment at 17% for the quarter, obviously impacted by the weather conditions, could you maybe share or give us an indication of what the gross margin for the detached segment would have been in Q1 had the weather been normal?

Allan Auning-Hansen

I would say, Anders, you're absolutely right. The gross margin has declined compared to last year.

It's on the backdrop of a lower sale in the end of 2025, where we saw that the market was declining. We decided to support our sales by also decreasing our margins on houses sold to some extent.

Then I would say, as I mentioned before, when we only have slightly under 3% on own land, it also does impact our margins. I think that's the closest I can get in terms of explaining it.

I would say margins is fair to be said, margins were expected lower, and they're also slightly lower than we had expected due to these harsh weather conditions in Q1.

Anders Preetzmann

Thanks a lot for the flavor there. Also for the Q1, the SG&A print at 112 million, is that the run rate for the remainder of the year or would we expect this to decline?

Of course, I assume that the divestment of the pre-fab factory would result in lower SG&A going forward, but can you help us a little bit here?

Allan Auning-Hansen

I would say if you take Q1 and pretty much say to some extent close to a run rate, and as you said, then there will be an impact of the divestment of factory for the last 3 quarters of the year.

Anders Preetzmann

Super. Maybe speaking of the divestment, are you able to just help us slightly to bridge whatever potential changes there might be in gross margin and SG&A costs going forward for the semi-detached segment?

What changes do you expect to happen here?

Allan Auning-Hansen

To give a little more light on it, we would say from an SG&A perspective, we expect around 15 million impact over the last 3 quarters. I would say from a EBITDA perspective, a slightly negative impact without being too specific, but on a EBIT perspective a slightly positive impact because of the level of depreciations that we are no longer carrying after the divestment.

Not a big impact, but slightly negative on the EBITDA and slightly positive on the EBIT side.

Anders Preetzmann

That is perfect. Thank you very much.

Final question for me, it's going back to the free cash flow of negative 97 million for the quarter. Just potentially some flavor here on the movement.

Maybe it's delayed deliveries impacting, but how should we understand the free cash flow for the quarter, and where do you see it for the upcoming quarters?

Allan Auning-Hansen

I put it like that. The free cash flow is very much dependent on deliveries from quarter to quarter.

If you take for example 2025 Q4, we had a number of deliveries towards the end of the quarter and a very high number of deliveries towards the end of the quarter, which obviously is when we get the payment upfront and some of the creditors are being paid in Q1, that has a negative impact. In addition, we also were some deliveries behind our expectations by the end of Q1 2026, which also impacted the free cash flow negatively.

These are the overall drivers, and I think trying to predict how the next couple of quarters are going to be is very much dependent on our progression and our production, I wouldn't comment too much more on that.

Anders Preetzmann

No, no, that's perfectly understandable. Thank you very much for the flavor, and thank you for taking my questions.

Allan Auning-Hansen

Thank you.

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

Thank you, Anders.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Sebastian Grave from Nordea. Please go ahead.

Your line will now be unmuted.

Sebastian Grave

Hi, Allan and Martin, and thank you for taking my questions as well. We've had a lot of discussion around the margin profile, and I will stick to the same topic essentially here.

On the detached margin, it seems in the quarter it reflects two things. It's deliberate pricing initiatives from last year, and then it's some winter effects here from start this year, as I understand it at least.

Now going forward, you also talk about an upward pressure on your cost base. Maybe let me put it like this: how do you think of the balance between chasing volumes in the detached segment, which you are pursuing deliberately, and protecting profitability?

That would be my first question.

Allan Auning-Hansen

Thank you for the question, Sebastian. I would say in general, and as you said, it's something that we focus very much on, and it's something that we balance on a continuous basis.

Of course, if we just decided to reduce margin significantly, we could increase volume significantly. For us, it's constantly about finding that balance and navigating the market depending on the market conditions as well.

I think that's the closest we can get to that without being too specific on the margin in a nominal value.

Sebastian Grave

No, that's fair enough. I understand.

Then as you said, a lot depends on the yeah customer activity and the outlook. A lot of uncertainty around the world.

Still, your March sales looked fine and so did April, but I guess these sales are based on, to say, old leads. What are you seeing in terms of current leads and current customer engagement levels on the back of, yeah, escalated uncertainty again around the world?

Allan Auning-Hansen

What we are currently seeing is quite good activities and number of meetings both in our showrooms and our show houses. Actually had a very high number of visitors in our show houses during Easter.

Would say currently we are being cautiously optimistic. Of course, as also mentioned, we are monitoring this situation closely.

I would say in April, we saw a decline in consumer confidence following some months where it had been either more positive in its trend or flatlining. I think it's a very cautious market that we are in right now.

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

Just to addition, it is a very volatile, what we're seeing about the leads and the number of meetings and, of course, the conversion going into sales. For the last couple of years, we have been a very volatile industry, actually it's not new for us.

We just have to be agile in the way that we are monitoring this business and also the opportunities that we are taking and also what we're seeing into our SG&A and FTE base. It is very volatile, and the one month can see very good and the next month a bit lower, and that what we are looking into for now.

Sebastian Grave

No, that's great. Thank you for the color here.

Just a last question, could you remind us now post the Esbjerg divestment, what's the medium-term margin profile we should expect in the semi-detached segment? Obviously, it's had a few quite standout good years in that segment in the past.

What's the medium-term profile here going forward?

Allan Auning-Hansen

The margins that we experienced in in Q1 was was in line with what we had expected. We are still carrying around some challenging projects, and and therefore there is uncertainty to the margin in the in the mid-term in the near mid-term, I would say.

When we look beyond 2020 2026, we are looking into a a different profile of our semi-detached segment and should get back to margins around 14% to 18% in in in line with that. It of course varies a lot depending on whether it's B2C sales on B2C sales on own land or B2B sales.

Overall these are still the expectations we have on on the longer-term basis. As we have mentioned before, some of these challenging projects, one is one is being delivered in this year and the two other projects in the beginning of next year and and into to mid next year.

Sebastian Grave

Sure. Thank you so much for taking my questions.

Allan Auning-Hansen

Thank you. Welcome.

Operator

Next up, we have a follow-up from Kristian Tornøe from SEB. Please go ahead.

Your line will now be unmuted.

Kristian Tornøe

Yes, thank you. It was just a question around the gross margin in semi-detached.

Obviously, we have seen some volatility here, and as you probably also noted, the 10.9% you reported was notably above the consensus estimate. I'm just wondering if there's any way you can maybe help us a bit on the phasing here.

I understand that these three projects you highlight have a dilutive effect, but will there be any changes to the mix making the gross margin vary in the coming quarters or how do we best model that development?

Allan Auning-Hansen

I think it's a fair question, Kristian. I think I have to stick to my answer which I have mentioned on some of the earlier calls.

We are having three challenging projects, and it's difficult for us, as we are also having some difficult dialogues with the counterparties, to be very much more concrete or specific than what we're seeing right now. I think the closest I can get is that the margins that we saw in Q1 was in line with our expectations.

Then we are delivering one of these projects and have two more projects ongoing. There is uncertainty to these margins, and that I think is the closest we can get.

Kristian Tornøe

Fair enough. The proportion of revenue in Q1 from these three projects, is that materially different than what you expect in the coming quarters?

No. All right.

Great. Thanks.

Allan Auning-Hansen

You're welcome.

Operator

As there are no further questions, I will hand it back to the speakers for any closing remarks.

Martin Ravn-Nielsen

Yes, and thank you again for taking an interest in HusCompagniet. If you have any following-up questions, please reach out to us and have a nice day.

Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you.