CEO's Review

In April–June, Loihde's revenue came to EUR 35.4 (34.2) million, an increase of 3% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA improved significantly (+153%) year-on-year to EUR 2.6 (1.0) million, or 7.2% of revenue.

Continuous services continue to show good growth

The positive momentum of our continuous services related to security and business networks has continued in the second quarter of the year. Contracts signed early in the year were in production as planned before the summer holiday season and we entered into several new continuous service agreements with both public and private sector clients. Growth has been driven by services such as cyber surveillance (CSOC) and network operations control (NOC), as well as access control and other security technology solutions that Loihde offer as a service. Nurse call systems for hospitals and nursing homes also continued to grow briskly, as did identity and access management (IAM) consulting.

Our broad portfolio of services focused on security, networks and cloud solutions is competitive and suits customer needs well. For these services, the market outlook is fairly positive, although the general economic uncertainty may affect companies' investments in security and networks.

IT consulting has continued to face challenges

The market for bespoke software development and some data consultancy continued to be difficult. The utilisation rates were lower than targeted and weighed on the profitability of the company as a whole. However, we have done well in some of our areas of expertise, such as data platform consulting and analytics. We have won new clients and strengthened our position in our most important client relationships, for example in the financial and industrial sectors.

In IT consulting, we have continued to take measures to improve our efficiency. Although the outlook for revenue for the remainder of the year is very cautious due to client demand and a lower number of consultants doing client work compared to last year, we expect the relative profitability of these service areas to improve slightly towards the end of the year.

Customer satisfaction is at a good level and profitability is improving

According to a customer satisfaction survey we commissioned this spring, our customers' NPS was 42, indicating a high level of satisfaction with Loihde's services and the expertise of our employees.

The first half of the year has been very mixed. Security and corporate network consulting, projects and especially continuous services, which are of strategic importance to us, have developed nicely, while IT consulting has continued to face challenges throughout the first half of the year.

Overall, the company's profitability has improved clearly, and we are confident about the prospects for improved profitability for the full year.