NORS OFF-ROAD

Nors directly operates the off-road business in Canada, Brazil and Angola. Additionally, it is present, indirectly, through its subsidiary Ascendum, in the markets of Portugal, Spain, USA, Turkey, Mexico and in Central Europe (Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Moldova).

In Brazil, the Group operates in the agricultural machinery business, with Case distribution in the interior of São Paulo.

The agricultural machinery market has evolved favourably and the company has also made very positive progress in market share.

In Angola, Nors operates in the distribution of construction equipment. The company's business grew significantly, much associated with the growth of the mining sector in the country.

In Canada, where the Group operates in the distribution of heavy equipment for various sectors, we saw a market in slight decline.

However, the company was able to grow significantly, with very relevant gains in market share, reflecting the various investments we have made in its installed capacity.

Ascendum's business is carried out in various markets. In general, the performance of its companies was extremely positive, as detailed in the following section.

Strongco

Strongco sells, rents and services heavy equipment for various sectors, such as construction, infrastructure, mining, utilities, municipalities, waste management and forestry, and has 26 branches in Canada, in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.

After a major market recovery in 2021, in the face of the profound impact felt by the pandemic in 2020, the GPE (General Purpose Equipment) market, Strongco's main market, saw a slight drop (-2.8%) in 2022. Although the market contracted marginally, Strongco made significant gains in terms of market share in this equipment, rising from 7.7% in 2020 and 2021 to 11.1% in 2022, leading to a 40.9% increase in units sold (+193 units). With regard to the GPE equipment lines, the share in the wheel loaders market evolved positively from 10.7% in 2021 to 16.0% in 2022, and in the crawler excavators market it increased from 4.9% in 2021 to 5.4% in 2022. As regards articulated trucks, their market share increased substantially, from 18.6% in 2021 to 26.8% in 2022, which represented +40 units sold.

In turn, the Road market recorded a 51.3% growth compared with the same period the previous year. However, Strongco saw its market share decrease from 7.2% (2021), to 2.5% (2022), with 13 units sold in 2022, compared to the 25 registered the previous year. With regard to the Compact market, the market contracted around 8.1%, with Strongco increasing its market share in this range, from 0.6% in 2021 to 0.8% in 2022. In this sense, even with the market fall, Strongco sold 12 units more than in the same period, a total of 58 units in 2022, compared to 46 units in 2021.

In 2022, rental business corresponded to about 2.9% of the company's turnover, which represents a decrease compared with 2021 (5.3%). This scenario appears closely linked to the priority given to the sale of equipment, in a scenario of restriction in the supply of equipment by manufacturers, which decreased the availability of fleet allocated to this segment.

The company recorded a 34.6% increase in turnover and a 27.3% increase in EBITDA, which was largely due to the excellent commercial performance in the GPE segment and the greater after-sales activity.

GPE - general purpose equipment

Turnover By Country

1 CEG corresponds to 6 Central European countries - Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Croatia.

Portugal

In Portugal, Ascendum Máquinas recorded a turnover of 72 million Euros, a growth of 6.8% compared to 2021 (with 67 million Euros).

Ascendum Máquinas operates in the sectors of distribution and sale of industrial machinery and equipment, equipment rental, after sales service for construction equipment, manufacturing and extractive industries, recycling, forestry and agricultural tractors.

Spain

In Spain, Ascendum Maquinaria has a network of agents to provide continuity to its business, offering a wide range of products and services and being considered by its main customers as one of the companies with the highest quality in its line of business, in the Spanish market.

In 2022, the Spanish construction equipment market resumed the positive trend started in 2013 - and interrupted by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic - and expanded 7% to 3,549 units sold.

Outperforming the market in 2022, and despite the restrictions in the supply of equipment, Ascendum Maquinaria's turnover increased by 9.0% to 107.4 million Euros, driven mainly by a 31.7% increase in the sale of new equipment and an increase of 3.4 million Euros in the after-sales business.

Usa

In the United States of America, maintaining the growth trend that was interrupted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction equipment market, where Ascendum Machinery operates, increased by 4% in 2022.

In 2022, and in line with the market trend, the US operation strengthened its turnover by 3.5% to $427.1 million (€405.6 million), driven mainly by the after-sales business, which represented anincreaseofanadditional$12.7million(€12.1million),accountingfor18.5%of2022turnover (16.1% in 2021).

Construction equipment sales, still impacted by ongoing supplier shortages and transportation and logistics delays, increased 2.3% to USD 329.8 million (EUR 313.1 million) in 2022, while rental business decreased 23.0% to USD 18.4 million (EUR 17.4 million) due to the sale of the existing rental fleet and the shortage of equipment to replace it.

Turkey

Despite the uncertainty and vulnerability of the macroeconomic context in Turkey, to which contribute the high levels of inflation, the contraction of investment and the vulnerabilities of the financial sector, - in addition to the geopolitical tensions felt in the territory -, the Turkish economy continues to perform positively, a fact proven by the performance recorded by the Group in that market.

The market where Ascendum Makina operates confirmed the recovery trend since the 2018 crisis and rose 54% to an unprecedented 7,210 units in 2022.

Mexico

In Mexico, levels of public investment remain at low levels, with the exception of some presidential projects, such as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the international airport in Mexico City (Aeropuerto Internacional Felipe Ángeles) and the Trem Maya railway project.

Despite the macroeconomic and operational context not yet proving favourable to the activity of Ascendum Maquinaria México, the fact that it is directly involved in the Trem Maya project, allowed, in 2022, to record a turnover 40.7% higher than that recorded in 2021 (74.1 million Euros in 2022), with this being the company's best year, at the level of turnover.

Ceg

In 2022, the Central Europe operation achieved a turnover of approximately 212 million Euros (13.1%abovethe2021turnover),withAustria(54.3%),followedbytheCzechRepublic(18.3%) and Romania (8.3%) as the largest contributors.

In consolidated terms, the turnover of the Ascendum Group exceeded the 1,200 million Euro mark for the first time in the Group's history, recording 1,202 million Euro (17.2% above the values recorded in 2021).

With regard to EBITDA, a historic milestone was also achieved, having recorded a growth of approximately 35.2%, when compared to 2021, reaching the 151 million Euro mark.

Auto Maquinaria

Auto Maquinaria is the Angolan distributor of Volvo Construction Equipment and SDLG construction equipment, and is also the exclusive representative of Grove, Hyster and Epiroc products in this market.

In 2022 sales increased 144.5%, essentially supported by the expansion of the market (+55.6%) arising from existing investments in the mining sector, activated by the increase in demand and the price of some commodities in international markets.

Worthy of note was the 2.9 times growth in EBITDA, ending 2022 with 17.9 million Euros compared to the 6.2 reached in 2021. This was made possible by the increased volume of commercial activity, but especially by the growth of the aftersales segment with a higher gross margin.

Agro New

AgroNew represents Case IH Agriculture in the Catanduva and Votupuranga region, in the interior of the State of São Paulo, with three major products: agricultural tractors, grain harvesters and sugarcane harvesters, the latter being the main product of AgroNew's operation.

In 2022, the company showed high sales growth (+46.2%) compared to 2021, highlighted by its excellent commercial performance, especially in the sale of tractors - 88 units in 2022 and 72 units in 2021 - and in after-sales with sales growth of 41.2%, which led to a 46.7% increase in EBITDA, compared to 2021.

The company captured an additional 0.2 p.p. of market share, closing 2022 with a 6.8% share.

GPPE construction equipment

Harvesters