Relais Group Oyj - Financial Statement Release

Relais Group Plc Financial Statements Review January-December 2024 (unaudited): A Record Year

Relais Group Plc
Stock Exchange Release 13 February 2025, 9:00 a.m. EET


This release is a summary of Relais Group's Financial Statement Review January
-December 2024. The full release is attached to this release and is available on
our website at https://relais.fi/en/investors/.


OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2024 IN BRIEF

  · Net sales totalled EUR 90.7 million (October-December 2023: 80.9), change
+12%
  · Comparable EBITA was EUR 10.6 (7.8) million, change +36%
  · Comparable EBITA margin was 11.7 (9.6) %
  · Earnings per share, basic was EUR 0.37 (0.35)
  · Net cash flow from operations was EUR 16.4 (8.4) million
  · At comparable EUR/SEK exchange rates, EBITA would have been approximately
EUR 0.1 (0.2) million higher than reported *)

JANUARY-DECEMBER 2024 IN BRIEF

  · Net sales totalled EUR 322.6 million (January-December 2023: 284.3), change
+13%
  · Comparable EBITA was EUR 36.8 (28.9) million, change +27%
  · Comparable EBITA margin was 11.4 (10.1) %
  · Earnings per share, basic was EUR 1.02 (0.76)
  · Net cash flow from operations was EUR 34.8 (30.6) million
  · Return on net working capital was 53.4 (44.0) %
  · At comparable EUR/SEK exchange rates, EBITA would have been approximately
EUR 0.2 (1.5) million higher than reported *)
  · The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of maximum EUR 0.50 (0.44) per
share to be paid for 2024. Of this dividend EUR 0.30 would be paid in April
2025. In addition, the Board of Directors proposes that the Annual General
Meeting authorises the Board of Directors to decide, at its discretion, on the
distribution of a maximum additional dividend of EUR 0.20 per share in November
2025


*) The EUR/SEK impact has been calculated by converting the SEK denominated
EBITA of the Swedish entities to EUR with the reporting period average EUR/SEK
rate as well as the comparison period average EUR/SEK rate and comparing these
two (translation difference).


2025 OUTLOOK AND LONG-TERM FINANCIAL TARGET

Relais Group does not provide a numeric guidance for the financial year 2025.
The company has a long-term financial target published on 3 February 2023,
according to which it aims to reach a proforma comparable EBITA of EUR 50
million by the end of the year 2025.


KEY FIGURES

(EUR 1,000 unless  10-12/2024  10-12/2023  Change    1-12/    1-12/  Change
stated otherwise)                                     2024     2023
Net sales              90,682      80,942    +12%  322,606  284,252    +13%
Gross profit           41,596      35,288    +22%  151,219  128,923    +18%
Gross margin            45.9%       43.6%            46.9%    45.4%
EBITDA                 14,293      11,738    +22%   51,863   43,542    +19%
Comparable EBITDA      14,878      11,746    +27%   52,490   43,841    +20%
EBITA                  10,008       7,794    +28%   36,126   28,552    +27%
EBITA margin            11.0%        9.6%            11.2%    10.0%
Comparable EBITA       10,593       7,802    +36%   36,753   28,851    +27%
Comparable EBITA        11.7%        9.6%            11.4%    10.1%
margin
Operating profit        9,035       6,972    +30%   32,983   25,147    +31%
Profit for the          6,733       6,304     +7%   18,533   13,739    +35%
period
Earnings per             0.37        0.35     +7%     1.02     0.76    +35%
share, basic
Cash flow from         16,365       8,436    +94%   34,837   30,598    +14%
operations
Net working                                         68,208   67,068     +2%
capital
Net working                                            4.8      4.4     +9%
capital
turnover
Interest-bearing                                   141,283  151,010     -6%
net debt
Net Debt to                                           2.72     3.47    -21%
EBITDA, LTM
Equity ratio                                         35.6%    33.6%
Return on net                                        53.4%    44.0%
working capital
Return on equity                                     16.2%    12.8%
Return on capital                                    13.2%    10.0%
employed

The change percentages in the tables have been calculated on exact figures
before the amounts were rounded to millions of euros.

CEO ARNI EKHOLM COMMENTS THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2024

A Record Year for Relais Group
“The year 2024 was a record year for us. We reached the highest Net Sales,
EBITA, Net Profit and Earnings per Share in the history of Relais Group Plc. The
Return on Capital Employed increased from 10.0% to 13.2% and the Return on Net
Working Capital increased from 44.0% to 53.4%. This demonstrates the strength of
our business model and strategy even during economically challenging times.
During the last five years, we have practically tripled our net sales and
simultaneously more than doubled our profit. We have succeeded in establishing
Relais Group as a significant commercial vehicle aftermarket growth platform
even on a European level and created significant value for our shareholders.

Segment overview

Both of our geographical segments Finland and Baltics and Scandinavia managed to
reach a double-digit turnover growth during 2024. The harsh winter conditions
during the first quarter boosted the sales especially in Finland, but also to a
certain extent in Sweden. The positive market development continued in both
segments in practice the whole year, and our sales developed well even during
the last quarter of the year despite the relatively mild winter conditions. The
Scandinavian market showed robust growth during the year and also the Finnish
market improved during 2024 as opposed to the relatively flat development during
the earlier years. The turnover growth of segment Finland and Baltics was +12%
(organic: +7%) and respectively +15% (organic: +9%) for the segment Scandinavia.

Business Area overview

In the Technical Wholesale and Products business area virtually all our Group
companies grew their sales in a significant way. The demand situation for spare
parts and equipment was strong in all our operating countries, demonstrating the
defensive nature of the vehicle aftermarket. The ageing vehicle parc demands
more spare parts and services, and during economically tough times existing
vehicles are used longer before changing into new ones. In addition, the long
period of extremely low temperatures during Q1 boosted the spare parts and
equipment sales. We also intensified our efforts in bringing new spare parts
under our private label product family “NPD”. We aim to clearly increase the
share of private label sales of our total spare part sales in the coming years.

Our broad product portfolio, excellent customer service combined with our best
-in-class digital customer interface and efficient logistics gives us a unique
position in this market. We work in close partnership with our customers and
help them to do a better business, every day.

Looking closer at our Lighting product group, the year 2024 was yet another year
of net sales growth. The export success of our Strands brand continued
especially in the Central European markets. In the Scandinavian markets we
relaunched our Optibeam brand and introduced several new products in that range.
The main season of the Lighting market starts typically during September
-October. This year the season started somewhat later, meaning that a relatively
bigger part of the sales now happened during fourth quarter. Although the
absolute majority of our Lighting products goes to business-to-business
customers, consumer demand also plays an important role especially during the
peak season in November-December. After a few years of sluggish consumer demand
our on-line sales to consumers showed encouraging development during Q4.

In the Repair and Maintenance business area the year 2024 was a year of
continued and profitable growth. The net sales of our commercial vehicle
business area grew with 15% (organic: 7%). Our operating units Raskone
(Finland), STS and Skeppsbrons (Sweden) continued their strong performance. The
targeted and strategic acquisitions of M. Ahlqvist in Finland and Team Verkstad
in Sweden further strengthened our competitiveness and service offering,
especially in the trailer repair segment in Finland. We continued to gain market
share in strong and close partnership with our customers in Finland and Sweden.
The continued work to increase the capacity utilization of our workshops,
including a systematic benchmarking and implementation of best practices is
giving real results also in the profitability of this business area. In only a
few years the commercial vehicle repair and maintenance business area has become
a major profit and cashflow contributor to Relais Group.

Acquisitions

We continued to scan the market for good acquisition targets and have been
engaged in several discussions and negotiations with owners of relevant
companies. When looking at acquisition targets we search for companies having a
stable financial track record, a well-managed business with a highly committed
team and perhaps most importantly, a solid path for future profit growth as a
member in the Relais family. During the year 2024, we completed two well
-targeted acquisitions and strengthened our commercial vehicle repair and
maintenance business area with M. Ahlqvist and Team Verkstad joining our team.

We also intensified our acquisition efforts by empowering the Group company
management to actively engage suitable acquisition targets within their specific
area of expertise. We expect that to increase the pace of acquisitions during
the year 2025.

Sustainability and good governance

The year 2024 was important for us in advancing sustainability and good
governance. We conducted our first group-wide employee satisfaction survey, and
the results were encouraging. This provides a solid foundation for further
developing our employee experience and workplace. We also focused on
strengthening HR management and ethical business practices by creating a group
-wide HR policy that provides guidelines for personnel management and launching
a Code of Conduct training program for all employees. Additionally, we clarified
our internal governance model by standardizing the management of our group
companies, which has improved structural clarity and operational efficiency. In
2024, we further developed our sustainability reporting in accordance with
European reporting standards, focusing on the Double Materiality Analysis. Our
commitment to sustainability is ongoing, and the steps taken in 2024 lay a
strong foundation for future development.

Outlook 2025

Relais Group's strong performance in 2024 creates a solid platform to continue
the positive trend also during the year 2025. We expect the market demand to be
on a stable level in our operating countries. We also aim to increase the pace
of acquisitions and continue to create value for our shareholders. We feel that
we are well positioned to continue our growth story also during 2025 and beyond.

Finally, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all our over 1,200
professionals for your dedication and hard work during the record year 2024.
Additionally, I want to thank all our customers, shareholders and business
partners for your support and commitment to Relais Group. We will do our best to
earn your trust also during the new fiscal period."


EVENTS AFTER THE REVIEW PERIOD

Entering of the cancellation of treasury shares into the Trade Register

The Board of Directors of Relais Group Plc decided on 23 December 2024 to cancel
the 71,785 own shares held by the company. 71,735 treasury shares cancelled were
acquired through the share buy-back program that began on 8 May 2024 and ended
on 5 November 2024 Relais Group. On 28 January Relais Group notified that the
cancellation of the shares were entered into the Trade Register.


FINANCIAL CALENDAR FOR 2025

Relais Group Plc will publish the following financial reports during 2025:

  · Interim Report January-March 2025,
on Tuesday, 13 May 2025
  · Half-Year Financial Report January-June 2025,
on Thursday, 14 August 2025
  · Interim Report January-September 2025,
on Wednesday, 22 October 2025


The reports will be published at approximately 9:00 a.m. Finnish time on the
above dates.

Relais Group Plc's Annual Report 2024 will be published on Friday, 14 March 2025
on the Company's website.

The Annual General Meeting 2025 is planned to be held on Thursday, 10 April
2025.


INVITATION TO THE WEBCAST

Relais Group's CEO Arni Ekholm and CFO Thomas Ekström will present the result to
the media, investors and analysts at a webcast on 13 February 2025, at 10:00
a.m. EET. The webcast can be followed at https://relais.events.inderes.com/q4
-2024

Presentation material and video will be available on the company's website at
https://relais.fi/en/
after the event.


Relais Group Plc


Board of Directors

Further information:

Arni Ekholm, CEO
Phone: +358 40 760 3323
E-mail:  ( arni.ekholm@relais.fi)arni.ekholm@relais.fi ( arni.ekholm@relais.fi)

Distribution:
Nasdaq Helsinki
Key Media
www.relais.fi

Relais Group

Relais Group is a leading consolidator and acquisition platform on the vehicle
aftermarket in the Nordic and Baltic countries. We have a sector focus in
vehicle life cycle enhancement and related services. We also serve as a growth
platform for the companies we own.

We are a profitable company seeking strong growth. We carry out targeted
acquisitions in line with our growth strategy and want to be an active player in
the consolidation of the aftermarket in our area of operation. Our acquisitions
are targeted at companies having a good strategic fit with our group companies.

Our net sales in 2024 was EUR 322.6 (2023: 284.3) million. During 2024, we
completed two acquisitions. We employ approximately 1,300 professionals in six
different countries. The Relais Group share is listed on the Main Market of
Nasdaq Helsinki with the stock symbol RELAIS.

www.relais.fi

Attachments:

02126459.pdf