President & CEO, NCC
NCC: Bättre att behålla industridelen
NCC:s omsättning och resultat för det fjärde kvartalet var i linje med de preliminära siffror bolaget lämnade i januari. Orderingången uppgick till 14.462 miljoner kronor, och bolaget föreslår en utdelning på 9,00 kronor per aktie för 2025 samt en extrautdelning på 2,00 kronor per aktie. NCC väljer att behålla affärsområde Industry, men som ett fristående bolag.
– Vi tror att det finns ett bättre aktieägarvärde att vi fortsätter driva det framåt, i förhållande till de bud vi har fått. Det är den enkla förklaringen, säger Tomas Carlsson, vd och koncernchef NCC.
Verksamheten och marknaden har ut...
About Tomas Carlsson
Tomas Carlsson, President and CEO of NCC, discussed the company's second quarter 2026 results in an earnings call and an interview. He described the quarter as a good performance for the group, noting high order intake of 14.1 billion and record Q2 earnings in the Industry business area for stone and asphalt. Carlsson stated that the contracting business showed improved margins but lower sales, which he attributed to low order intake in late 2024 and early 2025. He also mentioned that the company has been maintaining a prudent approach to tendering while seeing strong demand in the market. Carlsson commented on market conditions, saying that while the construction market is generally strong in areas like public buildings, healthcare, prisons, defense, and industry, the residential and commercial real estate sectors remain weak. He noted that the company is seeing some signs of movement in the market. Regarding cost management, Carlsson said NCC is actively working to control costs and ensure it gets paid for them, and he described the company's goal as strengthening margins across all business areas by being more selective in project bidding and phasing out low-margin projects. He also remarked that price increases are manageable but that volatility is a more difficult challenge.
Transcript (15 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
I'm thinking we'll talk about a company where the numbers were known. I'm talking about NCC. The order intake amounted to just over 14.4 billion in the quarter, and NCC proposes a dividend of 9 SEK plus an extra dividend of 2 SEK. What we are very curious about also, Tomas Carlsson, who is with us by phone, we appreciate very much, is the strategic review of the industrial operations. What is it that makes you choose to keep it?
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Tomas Carlsson0:39
Good morning. Yes, the simple answer is that we believe there is better shareholder value in continuing to drive it forward compared to the bids. That is the simple explanation. If you want to know more, we see that both the business and the market have developed positively during the year, and we don't think that is reflected in the bids.
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Interviewer1:09
So others have been unwilling to pay enough. But what is it worth then, do you think?
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Tomas Carlsson1:16
Yes, we'll have to see. I think it is significantly more. But one should note that we have an operating profit for industrial of 879 million SEK. That is an all-time high for them, but they also have a strong cash flow. They have very good return on capital. If one is suspicious, one could say that they have a good cash flow because we haven't invested during the year. But it's interesting. We have actually invested more in the business than we usually do. So it is a very strong business in an attractive market going forward. And what we are doing now is that from a governance perspective, we are setting it up as a separate company, and that gives us flexibility for the future to either continue to keep it forever, bring in a partner, or possibly list it separately eventually. But we haven't made any decision on that yet.
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Interviewer2:11
Mm. No, but what is the next step in this process?
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Tomas Carlsson2:15
Can you say that again, I didn't hear.
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Interviewer2:17
What is the next step in this process?
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Tomas Carlsson2:21
Yes, the next step is that we start to ensure that we have a completely separate company where we are the owners, but otherwise it is completely independent. Today it is quite connected in everything from IT systems, financing, development, recruitment, HR and all that, administration. So the next step is that we begin that process, and it actually starts tomorrow.
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Interviewer2:50
Mm. And do you already have any kind of costs for what this will cost, NCC?
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Tomas Carlsson2:59
No, I don't. We'll have to see. We will try to do it in a pragmatic and good way so we keep up the pace but don't do unnecessarily costly and unthought-of things.
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Interviewer3:11
Mm. We'll come back to that later. If we just look at the quarter then. We knew that the operating profit would be weighed down by write-downs, but overall, how is the feeling for the quarter?
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Tomas Carlsson3:27
I have a very good feeling for the quarter. One must remember that what we are doing now are revaluations of balance sheet assets, which is an adjustment to a property market that has been very sluggish for a long time. But then the underlying results are very good. So in the quarter, we have almost 700 million in profit. This despite the fact that we have no tailwind from property sales, when you look at the comparison quarter where we had almost 700 million in profit from property sales. So the contracting business is doing well, developing well, where Building Sweden is developing strongly during the year. Building Nordics achieves an all-time high result. The infrastructure business is stable. Industrial also achieves an all-time high result, and two business areas at new levels. We have good order intake, almost 14 billion, and one should remember that we have subtracted one billion from Korsvägen. So the underlying business is 15 billion in orders. We have just over 1.6 billion in cash flow in the quarter. So it is underlying very strong, and that allows us to stand firm on the dividend of 9+2 as proposed.
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Interviewer4:59
Tomas, a philosophical question if I may bother. It feels like all companies interpret the market rules a little differently and that NCC is the one that interprets them the hardest and strictest. No one updates the market like NCC. Am I off base here? Do you have any reflection on the market rules and whether there actually is a difference in how companies act?
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Tomas Carlsson5:24
Yes, what I think more about is what we think is right. That we think we do the right thing. What others do, I don't care so much about. [laughter]
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Interviewer5:34
Thank you very much for that answer, Tomas. Always nice to have you with us, and warm good luck. We hope the economy for housing and other things grows and turns as well.