Review by the President and CEO

In Q2 2024, we continued our track of improvements. This was the third consecutive upward quarter in revenue and the second in adjusted operating profit. We achieved revenue growth both from the comparison period last year and from the previous quarter. We made significant improvement in operating profit and turned our first half positive.

I am very proud of the work we have done in the first half of 2024 to strengthen our capital structure and accelerate our transformative growth strategy launched in late 2023.  A major highlight of the review period was the oversubscribed rights issue, which I consider a strong indication of support for our company and the direction we have chosen to take. In total, we received subscriptions for approximately 141 per cent of the offer shares, contributing gross proceeds of approximately EUR 21.8 million.

Following the offering, Exel had 8,425 shareholders at the end of the reporting period, comprising both institutional investors (55%) and households (45%). We saw the vast majority of our existing shareholders participate in the offering, being joined by many new owners as well. I would like to extend my warmest thanks to all shareholders who participated in our rights issue for their strong support and welcome you all on our transformative journey!

Our new financing agreement of EUR 52.4 million entered into force in June. With the financing agreement and the funds raised in the rights issue, we are now able to swiftly advance our strategic initiatives that we have communicated earlier. These include furthering the execution of the strategic factory network optimization plan and investments to support the company’s growth, among others. The equipping of our manufacturing facility in Goa, optimized for serving wind power industry customers in India, is well underway and production is due to start during 2024. The strategic review of the Belgian factory is also progressing according to plan, and we are proceeding to the action phase.

Order intake increased, markets developed in line with our expectations 

Similarly, it was pleasing to see that our efforts in the customer interface continued to pay off. Our order intake continued to increase, amounting to EUR 55.0 million for the first half. As a result, our order backlog at the end of June stood at EUR 34.5 million, which is 31% higher than the same period last year.

Markets developed in line with our expectations. We had estimated that the first half of this year would be busier than the previous six months, and in the reporting period, we saw increased customer activity in all our strategic industries, except for the construction market, where the situation is still challenging.

We signed several important new customer agreements in the first half, including a multi-year agreement with a major wind turbine manufacturer for the supply of carbon fiber planks for spar caps from our new Indian factory. In addition, we signed a multi-year agreement with Foton Bus and Coach company to deliver pultruded parts to electric buses, as well as a partnership agreement with Flying Whales airship company to design carbon fiber tubes to the airship’s fuselage.

Looking forward we are working on significant new customer deals in line with our strategic focus areas and hope to announce them in due time. With that said, the macroeconomic sentiment remains indecisive and has even shown some signs of cooling off during the summer. Uncertainty about the global economic outlook and geopolitical situation continues. We expect customer activity to remain at the current level in the second half of 2024, and it will continue to require daily efforts from us to maintain good development.

Revenue increased, significant improvement in operating profit 

The increase in order intake resulted in revenue growth in the second quarter. Revenue for the quarter grew by 4.7% from the comparison period coming in at EUR 26.6 million and was at EUR 50.0 million for the first half (H1 2023: 54.2).

Revenue in the second quarter grew in all customer industries apart from the Energy sector, since we are still preparing to ramp up production of certain wind products in India.

The increased order intake, combined with actions to optimize capacity, cost control and operational measures, elevated our Q2 2024 adjusted operating profit margin to 5.2% (0.3%) and our adjusted operating profit to EUR 1.4 million (0.1).

The profitability improvement in Q2 2024 speaks well to the value generation potential Exel has as we increase the utilization rates of our manufacturing capacity. We are still far below the utilization rates and order intake levels we target. However, it is encouraging to see that we are on the right path. We expect profitability to further improve over time with higher utilization rates, which we aim to achieve by ramping up new customer products and further optimizing production. Both actions are, however, expected to require investment and to incur additional costs in the short term.

As a result of our good progress in the first half, we had a positive operative cash flow of EUR 2.6 million. In the first half of 2024, Group’s financial position improved significantly with change in liquid funds being positive by EUR 21.3 million due to the successful rights issue.

Outlook for 2024 unchanged

We reiterate our guidance published in February 2024: Exel Composites expects revenue to increase and adjusted operating profit to increase significantly in 2024 compared to 2023.

New operating model in place 

In early 2024, we introduced a new operating model based on two business units: Engineered Solutions Business Unit and Industrial Solutions Business Unit. The second quarter was the first full quarter with our new operating model being fully operational. We now report revenue for the two business units, in addition to Group revenue by customer industry.

Revenue in the Engineered Solutions Business Unit was EUR 41.5 million in the first half of 2024. Markets picked up and the demand developed favourably in most of the customer industries. There was especially high demand in defense and various tube applications. In the USA, the Engineered Solutions Business Unit secured several new customers, particularly in the building and infrastructure sector. Many orders received in the first half are now in production and expected to become revenue in the latter half of 2024.

Revenue in the Industrial Solutions was EUR 8.5 million in the first half. Demand was cautiously positive, and there were signs of markets picking up. However, some customers continued to postpone orders and consume material inventories. New customers secured in the first half are expected to positively impact volumes starting in late 2024.

If I may, I would like to invite you to have a look at the business reviews in this report to get more familiar with our new business units and their activities.