Zaptec ASA

Zaptec ASA

56.40
NOK
-1.90
(-3.26%)
1.53EPS
31.31P/E
4.21BMarket Cap
Nov 04Next Earn

Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 18, 2026

Kurt Østrem

Welcome to Zaptec and our presentation of the financial results for the fourth quarter 2025. I'm pleased to announce that the fourth quarter was a very strong quarter for Zaptec due to strong EV market across Europe and our leading product offering.

This led to record quarterly revenue, EBITDA, and order intake for Zaptec. Also the installation and order backlog point to continue growth into 2026.

We are the market leader in core regions, and we are growing traction in major markets. We have a strong cash flow and liquidity, and for the first time, we are initiating dividend distribution from Zaptec.

Eirik Fjellså Hærem

Financially, Q4 was about profitable scaling. We increased revenue, grew our margins, and drove earnings higher.

We had a strong order intake, which lifted our backlog, giving momentum into 2026. In numbers, revenue increased 32%, order intake was up 41%, leaving us with a backlog of over 700 million NOK at year end.

This is a strong foundation going into 2026. OPEX spend was higher in NOK terms, but, importantly, lower as share of revenue.

We more than doubled EBITDA to 45 million NOK, equivalent to a 10% margin.

Kurt Østrem

We set a new level when it comes to quarterly revenue in the fourth quarter with 433 million NOK. It's the highest quarter ever for Zaptec, and it was 32% increase from the fourth quarter last year.

This is the fastest revenue growth since 2023 for Zaptec. We also saw a significant step change with 41% growth in order intake in the fourth quarter.

We had 645 million NOK in order intake, and that leaves us with the order backlog of 729 million NOK going into 2026.

Eirik Fjellså Hærem

Over to gross margin. Sustaining a strong gross margin remains a key strategic priority for us.

We have demonstrated higher gross margin over time, and in Q4, the gross margin returned above the trend line and came in at 41.4%. This is mainly due to product mix as we scaled the share of Zaptec Go 2 sales.

We remain optimistic to increase the gross margin in 2026 on a full-year basis compared to last year, noting that there might be variability from quarter to quarter as we've seen historically. Our ambition is supported by the belief that we will roll out even more Zaptec Go 2s looking ahead, and also from efficiency supply chain work where we target to increase the efficiency and reduce the COGS.

EBITDA clearly demonstrates the scalability of our business model. We delivered the highest quarterly EBITDA number to date in Q4 with 45 million NOK, which was up 26 million from the same quarter last year.

Margin was lifted from 6% to 10%. If we look at the next picture on the LTM EBITDA development, it demonstrates consistent profitability increase.

As we can see here, we have driven the LTM EBITDA 223 million NOK, which is around 8% margin. Also if we look at full year '24 against full year '25, we see that the EBITDA is more than doubled.

This is mainly due to the ability to drive revenue higher, the lifted gross margin, and that we increased the OPEX at a lower pace than revenue.

Kurt Østrem

The EV market continues to strengthen in Europe. The average increase in EV sales in the fourth quarter compared to fourth quarter last year was 40% across Europe.

Most of the market that Zaptec are in have a really strong increase in EV sales in the fourth quarter, and this is our main driver for our sales. Even in Sweden, with the weak EV sales in the fourth quarter, Zaptec set a new record when it comes to revenue in the fourth quarter.

We are continue to execute on our strategy. We build on success in core markets, we accelerate product rollouts and integration of our products, and we expand into major markets.

All the time, we have full focus on liquidity and optimize our cash flow while we are growing. As I said, a strong growth in mature markets in the fourth quarter.

You may believe that we are seeing the sunset coming in mature markets like Norway when it comes to EV sales and EV charging sales, but you are wrong. We have only reached 1/3 of electrification of the total car fleet in Norway, and to fulfill the EV transition, we need to continue with the record high sales we had in 2025 with 180,000 cars sold in Norway, EVs sold, and it will take at least 10 more years before we reach full transition into EV.

For Zaptec, who is such a dominant player in this market, it's gives us a huge potential for future revenue in the coming years. The same occur for the other core markets for Zaptec.

There, the EV adoption is even shorter, and that means that the potential is even bigger for Zaptec in the coming years. The point is, we are going into new markets as the EV adoption is increasing in these new markets, but the core markets remains important for Zaptec, and we create a massive revenue stream in the next decade.

Also, the installation growth was up with 22% in the fourth quarter compared to last year. More than 70,000 installation was done in the Q4, and the last 12 months, we have an average installation about 22,000 units each month.

There's also a seasonality when it comes to installation. Around Christmas time and winter, there is a lower activity, but this is normal.

The most important with this slide is that it shows that all the chargers we sell are being installed, and that make the foundation for future sales for Zaptec. Zaptec is well positioned to further scale production if needed.

We have production in Norway and in Germany, and this spring, we will start production in Hungary with the same production partner as we have in Germany. This will increase our capacity and also lower our COGS, we get even more competitive.

We have continuous product improvements and new EV ecosystem integration with our product. We are data-driven iteration across hardware, firmware, and our cloud.

We have over-the-air upgrades continuously improving our device performance, and most important, we have integration with EVs, energy system, and grid services. We are strengthening Zaptec strategic role in the connected EV ecosystem.

Both the energy sector, the infrastructure sector, and the mobility sector, they need hardware like Zaptec charger to be able to provide services which is needed in the market going forward. They need to collaborate to do this.

They cannot offer this services alone, and Zaptec is really good positioned in the center of this ecosystem, and this create a great opportunity for Zaptec going forward.

Eirik Fjellså Hærem

The next strategic pillar is expand in major markets. We increased the growth rate in the major markets in Q4, where growth was 79% compared to the same period in 2024.

The main contribution in terms of revenue came from the Benelux region, while Germany had the highest growth in percentage terms. We continue to focus on the largest markets in Europe because we know that there will be sold a lot of EVs in the next decade in those markets.

We focus our product development, our integrations work, and also our strategic sales efforts into Germany, UK, and France, which are the three largest markets. That said, we see continued high potential in the Benelux region, and in particular Belgium, which is an untapped market for us.

Let's look into our scalable cost structure. We have demonstrated over time the ability to grow revenue more than we grow the costs.

This illustration is a proof of that, where we can see that the OPEX share of revenue declined from over 34% in 2024 to 32% in 2025. We continue to focus on driving revenue growth at a higher rate than OPEX growth.

Strong sales in Q4 led to a 92 million NOK reduction in our inventory. We are now in the target range of 200 to 300 million NOK, which we have communicated earlier.

Our liquidity significantly improved in Q4. We added over 200 million NOK, and at year end, we had a position of available liquidity of 736 million.

I'd like to illustrate the build-up of liquidity in the quarter. As we can see, EBITDA of 45 million NOK plus working capital adjustments led to a 141 million NOK increase.

In sum, we added 203 million NOK in liquidity, which puts us in a very strong position.

Kurt Østrem

Zaptec is initiating dividend distribution for the first time. The board have suggested a dividend policy where our ambition is to distribute up to 50% of annual net profit.

The proposed dividend totaling NOK 2.0 per share for 2025. That includes the ordinary dividend of 0.3 from the net profit and an extraordinary NOK 1.7 per share.

Why should Zaptec as a growth company suggest dividend? The rational behind this is that we have a very solid liquidity and financial flexibility, and we see that this continue and increase into 2026.

Our balance sheet remain strong after we have paid dividend, and this enable us to continue our investment in growth as planned. Why invest in Zaptec?

We are the European leader in AC charging. We have a strong financial base in the Nordics, Switzerland, and Benelux.

We see a large growth runway in major European markets, and we have demonstrated smart and reliable technology offering lower total cost of ownership to the users. We have scalable production and mature commercial organization across Europe, and we are building strategic partnership with leading global players.

What about the future? We expect the EV market growth to remain strong across Europe.

We will continue our expansion in Germany, UK, France, and Benelux. We have product focus on continuous improvements, integration, and R&D execution.

The margin will continue to improve through COGS reduction and scale. We expect the profitable growth to continue in 2026.

Thank you for your continued trust and support.