NoHo Partners: Solid Q1 despite being slightly below expectations - Nordea

NoHo Partners reported seasonally small Q1 EBIT of EUR 7.3m (up 6% y/y), 7% below Vara Research consensus and our estimate. Q1 net sales were also up 6% y/y to EUR 99.3m, 3% below consensus and 1% below our estimate. Operational EBITDA (operating cash flow) was EUR 9.7m (EUR 9.1m a year ago). We believe the EBIT miss was mainly attributable to the International operations, which fell 23% below our expectations. The main negative revenue deviation y/y came from Norway. The Finnish operations’ EBIT, on the other hand, beat our estimate by 3% despite the soft environment, and EBIT margin improved 0.7 pp y/y to 7.6%. Guidance for 2025 was reiterated: NoHo expects the EBIT margin of the Finnish operations to remain at the current good level (2024: 10.2%) and EPS to increase (2024: EUR 0.54; consensus: EUR 1.70). Mathematically, the Q1 EBIT miss translates into 1-2% negative consensus estimate revisions for 2025E-27E, but due to its small size, we do not expect Q1 to trigger any meaningful estimate revisions and expect NoHo to be well on track to deliver on its guidance for 2025.