Quarter highlights Q4/2022(2)

Quarter highlights Q4/2022

On 24 October, YIT announced that it had signed a contract for the construction and maintenance of the new Gesterby school center in Kirkkonummi, Finland.
On 18 November, YIT announced that it had signed a development phase contract for the expansion of the Tampere City Central Office Building in Finland, and a contract for the construction detailed design and construction of a new A++ energy class bicycle factory in Lithuania.
On 2 November, YIT appointed Heikki Vuorenmaa as President and CEO. Heikki started in the position on 28 November.
On 5 December, YIT announced that it joins the Kupittaan kärki partnership project in Turku, Finland as an alliance partner.
On 7 December, YIT published its updated climate targets with a goal set at carbon-neutral construction.

Key discussion points of the quarter

The most discussed topics with investors and analysts during the final quarter of 2022 were the challenging operating environment, apartment startups in Housing, and YIT’s wind power development portfolio.

We have collected below a list of the most prevalent questions we received during the quarter.

Q: How has the operating environment developed in the fourth quarter?
A: The operating environment continues to be impacted by inflation, rising interest rates, and the emerging energy crisis. Inflation in construction materials has continued to stabilise, but at the same time the general consumer confidence remains on a low level as a result of the uncertain economic outlook. Cautiousness on the investor side has somewhat increased as well.

Q: How does the prevailing uncertainty in the operating environment affect apartment startups in the Housing segment?
A: We have continued to be careful when it comes to starting up new housing projects. For example, we have continued to require higher reservation rates before start-ups.

Q: Regarding your wind power development portfolio, you mentioned in your Q3 Interim report that you had approx. 3,000 MW of project opportunities in the preliminary study phase and additionally approx. 550 MW of projects in the permitting phase. How are these phases defined?
A: In the preliminary study phase the work focuses on preliminary profitability calculation, land leasing and suitability analyses. The permitting phase begins when master planning proposal is accepted at the municipality. The realisation probability of the projects increases as they move on to the permitting phase.

Silent period

YIT will arrange a silent call for Analyst on Tuesday 20 December and a recording of the call will be published later on the same day on our website. The silent period starts on 1 January and lasts until publication of our Financial Statements Bulletin 2022.

Earnings release

YIT’s Financial Statements Bulletin 2022 will be published on Friday, 10 February 2023 around 9 a.m. EET (around 7 a.m. GMT). A news conference will be arranged on the same day at 10:00 a.m. EET (8:00 a.m. GMT). The results will be presented by Heikki Vuorenmaa, President and CEO of YIT Corporation, and CFO Tuomas Mäkipeska. The news conference will be held as a live webcast that can be followed on the company's web site at www.yitgroup.com/webcast. A recording of the webcast will be available at the same address later that day.