Empower Group's order backlog grew significantly in the third quarter of 2017

Q3 2017 Highlights

• Empower's order backlog rose to the highest level for several years
  
  • We agreed on several large multiannual service contracts for telecom and energy customers in Finland.
  • Sales of maintenance services grew as a result of the economic upswing in the Finnish industry.
  • We won large project deliveries to energy customers.
• New service products developed by Empower became commercially available:
  
  • EmSafe service to actively improve work safety was introduced in HIAB
  • Preventative equipment maintenance Big Data analysis service to enhance operation and management started at StoraEnso's factory.
• Occupational safety was good: two zero-accident periods in the quarter. The autumn season's campaign focused on avoiding hand related injuries.
• Summer workers' feedback on the responsible summer job: Empower ranked 21 in the survey of 98 major companies in the series.

Group Key Figures

Revenue

The Group's revenue in the third quarter of 2017 was EUR 73 million (64.4), an increase of 13% compared to the previous year's comparison period. The cumulative revenue for January-September was EUR 182 million (179). The boom in the Finnish economy strengthened and was visible in all Empower business sectors. During the quarter, our revenue grew in the Industry, Power Networks and Information management sectors over the comparison period from previous year. In the Telecom Networks sector, the order backlog grew very strongly with the new multiannual service contracts but was not yet visible as a significant change in revenue in the third quarter.

EBITDA

The Group's EBITDA in the third quarter of 2017 was EUR 6.8 million, representing a 9.4% margin (EUR 6.5 million, 10.1%). Growth in revenue increased the EBITDA in the Industry and Information management sectors. In the Telecom Networks sector, the growth in EBITDA was affected by the digitization of processes. In the Power Networks sector, EBITDA was lower in the third quarter than in the corresponding period of the previous year due to the different phases of ongoing project deliveries.

Cumulative EBITDA for January-September was EUR 11.7 million, representing a 6.4% margin (EUR 14.2 million, 7.9%). Growth in revenue in the Industry sector increased EBITDA compared to the previous year's comparison period. In the Information management and Telecom Networks sectors, EBITDA was at the previous year's level. In the Power Networks sector, EBITDA was lower than last year, as large project deliveries completed in the first half of 2016 affect the EBITDA of the comparison period.

Future

Empower's quality goal is to provide the best customer experience in its field of industries. Empower's business sectors have a strong order backlog, and the outlook for the rest of the year and far to 2018 is positive. The new multiannual agreements in the telecommunications and information management sector concluded during the third quarter will have a major impact on the growth of business in 2018 and 2019 in these sectors.