Solwers expects positive 2026 EBITA below 2025 level and warns of debt covenant test
Key Facts
Solwers issued a new outlook for 2026, expecting positive earnings before amortisation of intangible assets (EBITA), but below the 2025 level, and revenue slightly below the previous year. The company warned that it may not meet its net debt-to-EBITDA covenant when tested at year-end. It said improved visibility for the rest of the year had enabled it to issue the new outlook. It added that it would begin negotiations with its main bank on the covenant position. This puts second-half performance and an agreement with the bank at the centre of the company’s results outlook over the coming months.
The outlook follows a first half in which revenue fell 1.2% year on year to 41.803 million euros, from 42.319 million in the corresponding period of 2025. EBITA declined to 286 thousand euros from 400 thousand. The billing rate also fell to 79.8% from 82.6% a year earlier. The company said demand at its Swedish businesses serving industrial-sector clients was mixed, and that pricing pressure and a lower billing rate weakened profitability. These indicators reflect weaker conversion of activity and revenue into earnings during the period, alongside continued growth in net debt.
Solwers said billable hours in the first half were about 2% lower than in the same period last year, while personnel expenses rose about 2%. It said the combination of fewer hours and higher expenses had a clear negative effect on profitability. Period data show net debt rising to 28.153 million euros from 25.099 million in the first half of 2025. Meanwhile, EBITDA fell to 2.084 million euros from 2.277 million. The risk of failing the covenant test comes amid this divergence between rising debt and falling earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.
The company had previously addressed a mid-year covenant test through negotiations with the bank. On June 26, 2026, Solwers announced that its main bank had agreed to a temporary waiver of the covenant review in the June 30 test. The company said at the time that the waiver followed negotiations and that financing discussions with the bank were ongoing. Its move now to begin new negotiations on the covenant position marks another development in the financing relationship as the year-end test approaches. The disclosure did not announce a new agreement or the outcome of those negotiations.
The 2025 results showed annual revenue of 80.567 million euros, up 2.9% from 2024, when it was 78.280 million. But EBITA fell that year to 4.027 million euros from 5.505 million in 2024. The new 2026 outlook places continued pressure on profitability in a context that began before the current year, despite the revenue growth recorded in 2025. The company now expects EBITA to be positive but below that year’s level, with revenue slightly lower. The announcement gave no specific forecast for revenue or EBITA for the current year.
On costs, the company said savings measures at some businesses include reducing staff and office space, with the effects expected to emerge gradually. It estimated that the full impact of these measures would be visible during the fourth quarter of 2026. The coming period will therefore focus on how profitability develops as savings begin to take effect, and on the outcome of negotiations with the bank over the covenant. A near-term date for investors is the company’s results review scheduled for November 12, which will provide an opportunity to assess operating performance before year-end. The covenant test at the end of 2026 remains the milestone the company warned it may not meet.