From a quarterly perspective, it’s a shame that the results still fell short of their potential.
But indeed, the future looks good, and that should (eventually) provide support today.
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Yep. And that earnings can was perhaps kicked, yet again, to the second half of the year. Operating cash flow is positive, but unfortunately, it’s not possible to analyze it in more detail right now because only the full-year figures are included.
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The share of materials and services jumped quite a bit in Q4. Could @Aapeli_Pursimo ask in the interview what the reason is? Accounts receivable also increased relative to revenue growth. I would be interested to know the reason.
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Adding it to the list 
The interview will be filmed this afternoon for scheduling reasons, so you can still submit more questions if any come to mind.
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Strong growth in the order book. However, practically all of the growth in Q4/25 compared to Q4/24 came from conductor cores: order intake was EUR 78.7 million, of which conductor cores accounted for EUR 47 million, meaning without them it was EUR 31.7 million vs. EUR 28.8 million. This order growth is certainly not very broad-based, so it’s pretty much relying on a single card. The order book growth in the coming quarters might look a bit different for a while.
At least regarding the De Angeli Prodotti order, deliveries were supposed to start at the beginning of the year, so perhaps they have been postponed. I’m a bit puzzled by how back-end loaded the revenue is for the year. I wonder if there have already been delays from the customer’s side.
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Exel Composites CEO Paul Sohlberg was interviewed by Aapeli regarding Q4. 
Topics:
00:00 Start
00:15 Q4 performance
01:27 Exel’s year 2025
03:15 Q4 order growth
04:37 Significant orders
06:18 Timing of contracts
07:15 Sales pipeline
08:30 Margin development
10:25 Accounts receivable on the rise
11:15 Sale of the UK factory
12:13 Belgian factory
15:14 Indian factory
16:44 Demand situation
20:01 Guidance
22:48 Cash flow
24:25 Main themes for 2026
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It’s strange that they still aren’t providing any kind of numerical guidance. Are the targets so outrageous that they don’t dare say them out loud, and are there simply too many variables, making forecasting pointless anyway? Looking forward to Aapeli’s report with interest.
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Feeling pretty much the same here. Well, at least the CEO didn’t try to pump the share price by talking — points for that 
But I really have to wonder: why pay Inderes for visibility and interviews if you manage to say… next to nothing in the interview? 
At that point, you might as well save both the money and the words.
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This. Plus a half-hour interview
Also, why the need to start fumbling when asked about accounts receivable. It’s obvious that some large accounts simply had bargaining power. For example, have carrots been offered in the other direction in framework agreements?
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Agreed. They should just be honest and admit they have no bargaining power. It also became clear that the customer holds the power regarding the timing of conductor core contracts.
The lack of guidance is the cherry on top: they genuinely don’t know where the year is headed, so they aren’t providing any guidance. Quite understandable, but the beating around the bush is completely unnecessary.
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In these conductor core projects, I think agreeing on a minimum level is a good thing, however.
The end customer’s installation schedules naturally determine the delivery schedule, and that can take time while infrastructure is being built, even if the masts are old.
I suppose the guidance of ”significant” can be interpreted as strong single-digit growth or higher.
Somehow Exel’s 60 million market cap (despite the debt) is starting to look cheap, even without a particularly significant improvement 
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Very good. Exel will be able to do longer production runs and predictability will improve.
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Of course. A contract is a contract and purchases are made at the point when they are needed.
Conductor core contracts likely won’t stop here.
Exel is in a good position, I really have to take my hat off to the strategy. Exel is completely different now than it was 5-10 years ago.
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Here is a new company report from Aapeli following the Q4 results
Exel’s Q4 operational performance fell short of our expectations, while its order intake reached a record level. In its guidance, the company paved the way for rapid growth in the current year but expected growth to be more heavily weighted toward the second half of the year. Due to the verbal guidance, there is uncertainty regarding the growth trajectory, but we interpret the growth outlook for the early part of the year to be more moderate than our previous expectations. Consequently, our forecasts for the current year were revised downwards, while we kept our forecasts for the coming years almost unchanged. In our view, the stock is largely fairly priced for the current growth phase, which is still in its early stages and involves uncertainties.
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Aapeli and Tomi talked about Exel in a video
Topics:
00:00 Introduction
00:13 Plenty of demand drivers
03:36 Order backlog at record levels
05:42 Scaling growth into profitability
07:08 The growth curve should strengthen towards the end of the year
10:41 Longer-term potential
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It’s easy to agree with that observation about the strategy; the company is very different now. Previously, operations were quite scattered across many small applications, and there wasn’t really a single clear growth story. Now the direction is much clearer, focusing on energy, infrastructure, and other volume markets where the properties of composites provide real significant benefits. At the same time, the production structure has been cleaned up and operations centralized where it’s possible to increase scale.
Conductor cores fit this picture quite well. They aren’t some isolated experiment, but exactly the kind of application where technology can scale into a large market. And Exel’s position in the value chain is interesting in the sense that the company doesn’t compete for individual grid projects but supplies the core to conductor manufacturers. If composite cores start to become common, Exel can benefit from the growth of multiple manufacturers at the same time. We’ve already seen indications of this through framework agreements.
Therefore, my feeling is that the strategy shift of recent years has put the pieces in a pretty good position. A big part of the work has been fixing the structure and sharpening the focus. The next phase is then quite simple: volumes need to start showing up in the numbers. If applications like conductor cores really take off, Exel could be in a very interesting position over the next few years.
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Here are Aapeli’s quick comments on the consolidation of Exel’s shares
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