4/24/2024

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the AdLife first quarter report. We're happy to take you through the presentation today with some highlights from the quarter. After the presentation, we will have a Q&A session. And after that, I want to encourage many of you to stay on to listen to a great story of Mediplast, actually our oldest company within the MedTech group and a company that has performed really, really well in terms of profitability improvement. So AdLife started the year in a very positive profitability trend, and this is, of course, very much in line with the previously announced priorities. On the lab tech side, the revenue development was slightly weaker after a very strong Q4 of last year, but the companies were successful in defending the margins. On the med tech side, there was a strong growth and also very pleased to announce an improvement in profitability adjusting for the one-off effects we saw in Q1 of this year and Q1 of last year. So the profitability improvement initiatives that we have spoken about for some time now, both in admission and in home care, they are progressing according to plan, and this is really, really important for us. And then finally, the cash flow initiatives do continue. Q1 is normally not a very strong cash flow quarter, But the operating cash flow was in line with the levels of the previous year. The release from inventory continues, which we're very pleased about. And then, of course, we have a currency effect on the net debt side. So moving on to the sales and EBITDA development in Q1. We saw a growth of 5% in the quarter. And, of course, we had a little bit of a currency tailwind. So adjusting for that. the organic currency adjusted growth was 4%. Looking at the EBITDA margin, we are in a positive trend comparing to the previous few quarters. And adjusting for the one-off costs we saw in Q1 of this year, as well as in Q1 of last year, we are roughly at the same level. So with that, I will hand over to Kristina, who will take us through a little bit more of the details.

speaker
Kristina
CFO, AdLife

Thank you, Fredrik. So, sales growth in the quarter was 5%, driven by very strong organic growth within MedTech of 9%. Growth in LabTech was minus 5% due to soft instrument sales explained by delays in projects. Growth margin was stable in the quarter, but we had a mixed bag between the two business areas. Within LabTech, with soft instrument sales, gross margin was higher and increased compared to last year. MedTech, on the other hand, had strong instrument sales, especially in the UK and Ireland, meaning that the gross margin was slightly below last year. Looking into other income and expenses, last year we had the reversal of a continued consideration of 83 million, as well as capitalization of R&D within Camaglio. Continuing to the one-offs in this quarter, they also relate to Camano and its restructuring cost. This means that we will see a cost decrease now starting in Q2 going forward, and the aim is for everything to be closed in Camano by end of September. If we adjust for the continued considerations as well as the one-offs, we have the EBITDA growth of 5% in the quarter. That meant that we had a margin of 11.5, both in this quarter as well as previous year. Looking at the financial net for the quarter, we had interest cost that was above Q1 last year. If we look at the last quarters, the last four ones, we are in the same range of interest net. Also this quarter, we had a negative impact from the change rate losses. compared to an actually exchange rate gained last year. Operating cash flow was just below 100 million Swedish crowns, following the seasonal pattern with normally a strong Q4 and a weak Q1. Inventory reduction continues, and the growth in accounts receivables is mainly driven by continuous sales growth. And looking at the different parameters within the cash flow, we can see that working capital was minus 134 million compared to 150 last year. And the focus that we have had on inventory reduction has been successful, and this continues throughout 2024. Account receivables is mainly driven by continuously growth in sales, and accounts payable can vary a bit between the quarters, but also clearly a reduction in inventory reduces the accounts tables. Net debt increased in the quarter by 245 million. The majority of the loans are in euros, meaning that we had a negative FX impact in this quarter, just below 200 million Swedish crowns. Also, an increase in leasing liabilities related to both new and but also renewed lease agreements impacted net debt in a negative way. And moving on then to the leverage that increased in the quarter from 3.5 to 3.8. Net debt driven by FX and increased leasing cost, but also the last 12 months EBTA now excludes the reversal of the contingent consideration of 83 million in Q1 last year, also having an impact. Net debt to equity ratio is 1.1, just below the internal guidance of 1. And as communicated earlier, the ambition is to reduce debt via self-generated cash flow. We have normal bank loans, approximately half short-term, half long-term. The short-term loans are due in Q1 2025. And we are now initiating discussions regarding those with the aim to have new agreements in place within the coming six months. The long-term loans are due in Q3 2027. We have two covenants. One is interest coverage ratio and the other is equity ratio. Looking at the interest coverage ratio, it should be above four times in this quarter if it was 5.3%. Equity ratio should be about 25%, and in the quarter it was 39%. Headroom in both cabinets. And with that, I hand over to Fredrik.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Well, thank you very much, Kristina, for that clear summary. So now we move on to the business areas. So in lab tech, the growth was negative 5%. However, we saw a good start of the year, and the weakness was primarily in the month of March, so we are confident that will be a temporary weakness. The margins at 11.5%, so in the higher end of that range of 10% to 12% that we have said that we should be in, so still a healthy margin. The company did a fantastic job with the good cost control. The gross margins were strong. And the weakness that we see is mainly in delayed instrument sales. We do think that those instrument sales projects are going to materialize just a little bit later in the year. There is some uncertainty around research budgets. We have communicated about this in the past as well. But clearly in the pharma industry, the demand is very, very strong. And it's also worth to note that we had a fantastic end to the year of 2023 in our Eastern European business, and now we saw a little bit of a slower start to the year as an effect of that. So all in all, a good quarter for the lab tech business, but probably a temporary weakness on the revenue side. Moving on to med tech, we saw a strong organic growth at 9%, so very pleased with that. The elective surgery activity that we have spoken a lot about, continues to increase and is now approaching levels that they were before the pandemic. But this is expected to remain a quite positive trend supporting our growth. We have taken a lot of actions within our eye surgery business. And in this quarter, we are very pleased to note that we are actually seeing a clear and tangible improvement. So the teams have done a fantastic job there and it's showing in the numbers. We are progressing with the closure of Camagno and it's progressing according to plan. We're not seeing that in the numbers as of this quarter, but we expect to be able to shut that down towards the end of 2024. Moving on to our priorities and actions, they are indeed unchanged. Protecting and improving profitability is a highest priority for us. Organic growth cash flow and acquisition follow in that order. So in light of the focus on the improvements in profitability, that being our highest priority, I want to share a little bit more of details around the situation in the eye surgery business. So we had good sales development, stable sales I would say, at the same time a significant cost reduction and that is now showing in the profitability. We went from negative profitability in the previous quarter to solid positive in this quarter. So quite an achievement there by the team. So the organization has really stabilized, and the product portfolio has been updated to a level that we now feel we have a competitive portfolio. Important to note also that the businesses in Poland and Switzerland are doing really, really well, so strong profitability there. We continue with the work with this dedicated effort, and now the companies are really, really focusing on delivering on the plans that we have laid out, so commercial execution is where the focus lies right now. So well done there, team. And moving forward to Camonio, as I mentioned earlier, we are progressing according to plan. The trade union negotiations have been completed as we had expected in the month of February. We have taken a restructuring cost in this quarter of $6 million. We have worked very diligently to support all the customers that we have, make sure they have a smooth transition into a new supplier, and that is progressing very well. All customers are now in the process of making that change. The cost reductions will start to show in the numbers in the second quarter of this year. and we hope to be ready to complete all of those cost reductions towards the end of the year. So I mentioned earlier the elective surgery procedures. They are continuing to grow. We have shown this slide previously at the Capital Markets Day when we saw that the elective surgical procedures were significantly below the 2019 level, the pre-COVID levels. We have seen a gradual increase, and now as we summarize the input from all the companies in which we are active, we see that we are now getting close to the 2019 level. So that's a positive. However, we all know that there are long waiting lists in the healthcare systems all across Europe. So the healthcare systems will need to get above that 2019 level to in an effective way start to reduce the waiting list. So there is still a lot of work to be done and we are working diligently to support our customers in that. an expectation here of a continued growth in number of elective surgery procedures during 2024. So in summary, we're very pleased to see the companies within the AdLife family are doing really, really well, really strong teams. We're super happy with that. We see favorable market conditions that will help us support our growth ambitions. The priorities are clear to us, and the highest priority is indeed to improve the profitability, and that is going quite well. We are seeing some strong progress in those areas, and actually moving the eye surgery business from negative to positive is a great achievement by the team. Cash flow initiatives are super important to us as well. Those initiatives continue, and we are pleased to see that in the quarter, We continue the positive trend of inventory reduction. Of course, accounts receivable is growing, an effect of the continued growth that we're seeing. So our ambition is very clear. We will continue to reduce debt over time, and once we get to a satisfactory level, our activity in terms of acquisitions will increase, and we are clearly preparing for that with an active pipeline work. So I can conclude by saying that AdLife is, off to a great start of 2024. So congratulations to all our companies. Job really well done. So now we will open up for a Q&A session. But again, I encourage you to stay on until after the Q&A as well. You will hear a great story about Mediplast, a very important company within the MedTech group and a company that has done a fantastic job in growing the profitability. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

To ask a question, Raise your hand and the organizer will call your name and unmute you. Once you have been unmuted by the organizer, you will need to unmute yourself to speak. Once you have asked your question, please mute yourself and lower the hand if you have no more questions. Alternatively, you can write your questions in the question box.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Good morning, everyone. So I hope you got some clarity in the presentation there. And now we are getting ready for the questions. And I hope this tool works out well. Remember to raise your hand and unmute before you go. So let's see what kind of questions we may have. So we're still waiting for the questions or possibly the technology here. Okay, so we have a first question here from Charles Weston. Please go ahead.

speaker
Charles Weston
Analyst

Hello. Thanks for taking the question. And I'm afraid to say that perhaps I couldn't work the technology because I was just in a holding room for the last 15 minutes rather than listening to your presentation. So apologies if this question has been already answered. But you touch on the elevated elective surgery activity and the outlook being positive there. Can you give me a sense of what the regional distribution is like? I think I asked last time and I know that, you know, UK was always tough and some of the European countries was much better. But if you could just give us an update on that, that'd be great. And then you also mentioned historically about the. The evolving landscape, I suppose, in terms of some of the large med tech companies wanting to be more nuanced in terms of their distribution strategy and use partners in smaller territories. If you could sort of give us a sense of how that's developing as well, that would be very helpful. And apologies again if I if I if I ask something you've already mentioned.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

No worries. Sorry that the technology didn't work out for you exactly as planned there. But you're right. We do see the continued evolution in surgical procedures. On average, we're getting close to 2019 levels, just below now on a European average. But some countries are more ahead, I would say, and that would include Spain and so on. Other countries that are behind would include the U.K., But on the other hand, we have seen recently a nice pickup in the activity in UK. So movement in the right direction there. Even if we are on average now back on roughly the 2019 levels in terms of surgical procedures, that's not going to be enough to handle the backlog. So the number of surgical procedures will need to come up further to start really in an effective and meaningful way reducing that backlog. that backlog. So that's true. And then your second question was around the changes we see in commercial strategies in suppliers. And that trend continues. And it's really in two ways. We see it in maybe in some smaller countries. There is a Some of the major suppliers are pulling back and that could help us to either take market share or possibly take over some of the portfolios. But that's not only in the smaller markets. We see it also in bigger markets where we have some discussions with important suppliers about taking over portfolios. And we may or may not do that. But in general, we have a positive view on that. on that extra opportunity to broaden the portfolio. And of course, we stick to areas that we know well, so that we can leverage the customer relationships we have in that sense. So those, I hope that was an answer to your questions. Anything else from Charles or Happy? No, okay, well, let's continue with Mathias from Handelsbanken.

speaker
Mattias Hegblom
Analyst, Handelsbanken

Yeah, thanks so much for taking my question, Mattias Hegblom, Handelsbanken. So two questions, please. On Advision, is there any way you can help us understand the pace of the improvement? I think we had red numbers in Q4, so I guess it's fair to assume we're back in black. But any comment on the magnitude of the improvement? And if you can call out Poland and Switzerland, which were the best performers, are they already where they should be over time or is there still more room for them to improve? And then secondly, on the leverage process, operating cash flow down year over year when cash flow generation was perceived weak last year, we all know seasonality and it improved during the year. But help me understand how how this cash flow generation, this quarter fits with your internal planning to deleverage the balance sheet and how that feeds into your appetite to do additional M&A. Thanks so much.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Yeah, thank you, Mattias. Great question. So, yes, we are pleased with the development within Advision. It has improved significantly compared to Q4 2023, where, as you correctly state, we were in the red. Now it's actually, you know, in black again, you know, and, you know, in, say, single-digit profitability which is you know an important and rather quick improvement we think so happy with that of course we need to continue the development trend and also important to note that when comparing to q1 of 2023 the difference isn't as big but as you yeah clearly we were in the red in q4 2023 and now back Back in black. So we're happy about that. And then we do mention Poland and Switzerland. I think Poland is doing a fantastic job, you know, double digit profitability, strong double digit profitability. Switzerland also double digit. Of course, we're there. We always work with tweaking and improving so we can always get better. But I think those are two good examples of countries where we have a great position and it's working quite well. The work continues to improve in the other parts of the business and strengthen primarily the commercial processes. That's where we need to go. I think we're much more comfortable nowadays with the product portfolio and feel that we have a quite competitive offering there, actually. So that's that when it comes to AdVision. Your second question was around cash flow and debt. So it's clear that the Q1 was weaker than Q4, but again, very clear seasonality effect. Looking at the main factor we're focusing on when working on our improvement programs, that is indeed the inventory levels. And so we're really pleased to see that the positive inventory level development continued in the quarter. Then, of course, accounts receivable came up a little bit. But we're not pushing the working capital so hard that we want to strangle the sales growth. And then, of course, accounts payable came down a little bit, but that's also possibly a good sign in indicating that we're continuing to not build inventory. So I think we're moving in the right direction. We won't reduce our activity in the area. We will continue with the work with with supporting the companies and improvements here, so that will remain a very high priority. We stick to our plan of developing our acquisition pipeline. We have a number of interesting discussions ongoing, which we hope to be able to wrap up a few of them during this year. It's mostly around the negotiation process and so on. So we won't rush it, but we are also confident that we should be able to complete a few deals before the end of the year. So I hope that's an answer to your question, Mattias. And we have now Christian. Christian, please go ahead.

speaker
Christian Glennie
Analyst, Stifel

Hi. Good morning. Yes, Christian Glennie from Stifel. A couple on MedTech piece and then a follow up on LabTech. So on MedTech, you talked about obviously electives getting back to pre-pandemic levels in the main, but still a large backlog. Is there any evidence in any countries or particular regions maybe that people can meaningfully work into that backlog and actually um make some moves there or is it just you know if things are operating as sort of where they are maybe that backlog doesn't shift and then specifically around you know the the nine percent in the in the first quarter the growth what's your guidance for medtech for for this year and and over the medium term please well i think that

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

There's clear evidence that some health care systems have been making a dent in the waiting list. I think Spain is a good example. We saw that happen a lot during the previous year, but I think they're doing well there. When it comes to Scandinavia, I think it varies a little bit by country and region. Some hospitals, some regions have picked up the pace quite nicely and very strongly reduced waiting list. Other regions, a little bit less so. And in Scandinavia in particular, we're seeing some effects of staffing shortage as well. So, yeah. work to be done there as well. And probably, as you well know, in the UK, the waiting lists have been substantial. But in the end of last year, we started to see a shift in that trend. And we've seen that to continue in Q1, even though there have been some strikes and so on. But I understand the risks for strikes have been reduced in the past few months here with some new agreements in place with hospital staff. So I think You know, we remain positive around the development there.

speaker
Christian Glennie
Analyst, Stifel

And guidance for MedTech?

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Yeah, guidance for MedTech, good. The quick answer is no guidance. We don't do that. But I think we don't want to give any outlook or guidance, but we do think that the trends remain, that there's a stability in the market, the underlying trends remain. We do expect a continuation of the activity to reduce the waiting lists.

speaker
Christian Glennie
Analyst, Stifel

Okay, thank you. And then on lab tech, the minus 5%, presumably there's there's variability within that. Could you just tease out a little bit what, you know, is it by particular product type? or a customer type that sort of gets you to that 5%? Some probably positive, some negative.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

So how do you get to that? It was a level of consistency between all our companies. So there was a little bit of a change in the market in March, but we do think it's temporary because after that we've seen that the activity has picked up again. It was clearly around instruments, you know, reagent sales continue to be strong. So the instrument sales was somewhat weak. But again, these are projects we work on together with the customers. We don't see that these instrument sales are actually being canceled. They are being postponed. So we do think that this is important. temporary setback in the sales growth. So nothing dramatic there on a year level, really. So that's the way we look at that. It's also maybe important to note that the weakness that we saw is mainly in the tax financed area of research, where there's possibly some concerns about budget, In the private sector, primarily in pharma, which is a very important customer group for us, the activity remains very high. So we see no evidence of any changes in the demand there. We don't expect to see that either. So, again, when it comes to lab tech, we don't give any guidance, but we do feel fairly confident that the slight weakness during the month of March is indeed temporary.

speaker
Christian Glennie
Analyst, Stifel

OK, thank you.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

All right. Another question from Charles. Please go ahead.

speaker
Charles Weston
Analyst

Sorry, you don't have another question from Charles. That's a lack of ability to work with technology.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

OK, well, that's a good thing. And you got your answers that you needed. So thank you.

speaker
Charles Weston
Analyst

I did.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

All right. Let's see if we have any other questions. So, Matthias. Yeah. Mattias, did you have a follow-up question?

speaker
Mattias Hegblom
Analyst, Handelsbanken

Yeah, I did. Technology wasn't just with me. So just two quick follow-ups. So you said admission improved, obviously, in the quarter. It was back into black. But you also made some comment around Q1 last year. I wasn't sure if the profitability is back on par where it was last year in Q1 for admission or if it's even better. just to try to understand where we are in this improvement trajectory. And then secondly, any comments around what you see in terms of pricing for transactions that you've seen in your near-term environment, although you haven't participated? You know, what was happening with valuations, given that public markets have recovered? Thanks so much.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Yes, thank you. So in the beginning of 2023, we had mentioned that we were in this, you know, single-digit or around mid-single-digit profitability in Advision, and then it actually deteriorated during 2023, and then to a clearly negative number in Q4. Now we're back, I would say, in that single-digit profitability again. So there's no dramatic change versus Q1 2023, but the change is dramatic when you compare it to Q4 2023. So that's the admission one. And your second question was around acquisition and multiples and so on. And I think that we have a number of dialogues ongoing. We have previously communicated that our, say, historical multiple valuation in acquisitions have been around seven to eight. Of course, for the larger companies, much bigger. But now we're back with the focus on the smaller companies again. And we are clearly in the lower end of that range. And I would say in most cases, you know, clearly below even that seven to eight multiple. So I think it's a fairly healthy environment right now. We have a number of leads that some of them we have found ourselves, some of them we have been approached. The dialogues are ongoing, and I think the evaluations are healthy.

speaker
Mattias Hegblom
Analyst, Handelsbanken

Thanks so much.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Thank you, thank you. So let's see, do we have any other questions? Yes, we do. Great. Carl, yes.

speaker
Carl
Analyst

Please go ahead, Carl. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Yes, great. I have some problems getting into the conference, so I haven't... haven't listened in to anything that's been said before Mattias' last question here, but my first question would be on Advision, where you stated you have seen better than expected improvements. Could you maybe talk a little bit about that? Is it driven by the market coming back or sales coming back? Or is it mainly cost-related? And what to expect going forward in Advision, please?

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Thank you, Carl. Well, I think it is true we are seeing a stronger and maybe more importantly, quicker recovery in a vision. So that's really helpful. It's not a market change per se. I think it's more cost control and an increased commercial focus that have been, you know, recipes for success for us. I think there was a time we lost a few suppliers. We We had a little bit of a weakness in the sales team that we had worked on diligently to fix and recruit new people and train our sales team, but also the customers. Now, a lot of work has gone into that, and we are now much more confident in both the commercial organization as well as the product portfolio. We feel that it's quite competitive now. with some recent product additions and a good mix, really. So super satisfied with that development, but we're not done, but we have been able to get back into profitability perhaps a bit quicker than we expected. But there's a lot of good things in the AdVision group. It's important for us to look at this on a company or country-by-country basis, you know, getting back to the decentralized business model with strong leaders that are, you know, that are empowered to do what's necessary in their respective market. And I think Poland is an excellent example of that, where the profitability is is in solid double digits, so quite good. And also Switzerland has been improving also in the double-digit area, so we're quite pleased with that. So the recovery is there. It has come a little bit quicker than expected, but we continue the diligent work to make sure that it's solid. Sounds good.

speaker
Carl
Analyst

Just a question on the absolute margin level. Are you saying what that is in addition, or do you look at it as a group anymore?

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

We don't really look at it as a group. We're looking at it company by company. So that's how we look at it. We still have some issues in some of the countries, but the trend is positive, clearly.

speaker
Carl
Analyst

Sounds good. And then just in lab tech, you stated that you saw both lower demand in March and some delayed deliveries. So I'm just wondering, I mean, quite a drop here, which was not really expected. So I'm just wondering if you would think it's reasonable to expect you to return to positive organic growth already in Q2 here and onwards in the lab tech side?

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Well, I think the quick answer is yes, we do think we will continue the growth. And to elaborate a bit further on that, a little bit of an uncertainty that we have spoken about when it comes to the publicly funded research budgets. So that, I guess, came through a little bit, but not in reagent sales, only in instruments and also not a cancellation of orders or projects. It's just that you know, some of the processes take a little bit longer. And, you know, it could also be somewhat linked to staffing shortage in the lab and also in procurement organizations and whatnot. So, again, we haven't lost any of the projects we're working on. They're still alive. So we do think we will recover, and we have no reason to change our, you know, our view on the market and the positive underlying market trends that are there. Yeah. I think so it was an effect in March and we have seen some other peers have seen something similar as well but the mood is positive in the teams and early indications of April are positive as well and also like you said Carl we have seen delayed in delivery from suppliers as well impacting the quarter that's true and that should come in Q2 or Q3 or

speaker
spk01

That we hope, yes.

speaker
Carl
Analyst

Yeah, okay. That sounds good and promising. And just one question here also on the balance sheet. I mean, net activity day coming up a little bit here in the quarter, and you now have a net activity of 3.8. At your CMD late fall here, you said that you aimed to reach below three times in net activity day in the latter parts of 2024. When I calculate, it seems quite hard to reach. Have you updated your view here, or how should one look at it?

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

I think we should get into the neighborhood of three, you know, end of this year or early next. That's what we think, and that's what we stick to, really. But I think, of course, it would have been nice if the debt came down, but it has to remember here that this is mainly a currency effect. Yeah. big share of our debt in euros and given to the weakness of the crown that's just some mechanics going on there and the cash flow is of course the lever which we can influence and that we are and happy to see inventory levels coming down so but more work to be done for sure but I think we're we're on track there and cash flow usually is stronger in Q2 right or Q2 and Q4 is the strongest cash quarters right Q1 is traditionally quite weak. We can expect a gradual increase.

speaker
Carl
Analyst

Then just the last question on come on you care and winding down of that department. You had 21 million or maybe 15 in let's say recurring cost in that side in Q1. Is that expected to be similar for Q2 as well or?

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

No, it should come down. We had a total of 21 with a 6 million, you know, reorganization charge. And so that should come down clearly in Q2. Now all the customers that we have had have now – actively started to move towards new suppliers. So that's really progressing well. We are supporting them in that transition. We have to take that responsibility, of course, but we're happy with how that has evolved. That means that we can now move on with the cost reductions. And so we expect costs to come down already in Q2 and continue on that path. And we'll be done with it mostly at the end of Q3.

speaker
Mattias Hegblom
Analyst, Handelsbanken

Yeah.

speaker
Carl
Analyst

Sounds good. Thank you for answering my questions and good luck out there.

speaker
Fredrik
CEO, AdLife

Yeah. Thank you, Carl. Thank you, Carl. So let's see. Do we have any more questions? Okay. Well, thank you all for listening in and thanks for good questions. I hope you got the answers you needed. Otherwise, as usual, please don't hesitate to contact Christina or me on the phone or via email. We'll make sure to answer them as quickly as we can. And so all in all, I think we're pleased with the quarter. Good improvements in the margins, primarily in MedTech. A little bit of a a blip in the curve, I would say, on the MedTech or the LandTech demand. But we are confident that that will recover and the diligent work on profitability and cash flow will continue. So now if you have a few more minutes, I would encourage you to stay on to watch this great video we have of MediPlus, really the starting point of the MedTech business area and the company that has been very successful in continuous improvements and profitability improvements. So thank you and we'll talk soon.

speaker

The future looks promising for not only Metaplast, but for the group in general. I joined Metaplast about eight years ago, and it's great to see what the company has accomplished. We have more than doubled in size, and actually, 2023, we were able to reach a milestone that was one billionth second revenue. Today, I'm privileged to introduce you to Metaplast. We were actually one of the first companies that AdLife acquired, creating the MedTech leg within the company. MediPlus has evolved in the last 60 years from the startup to a global entity. This has very much shaped us to the company that we are today, put a lot of values in our long-lasting relationships built on humility, but also empathy. I'm incredibly proud of leading this business. As being both a manufacturer, but also a distributor representing worldwide brands and global suppliers, we work really closely with both naturally the customers, but also the patients being able to provide the best services, but also the best product portfolio that we possibly can do. We see a greater demand in terms of sustainability. Mediplast was actually one of the first companies creating a full portfolio within transfusion and also infusion sets, PVC free. We just now also launched the Bamboo range within wound care. Mediplast's corporate values is characterized by humility, personal ownership, helpfulness, but also mutual respect. We've been trying to foster a culture in the organization that is essential for interacting with all our stakeholders, but most importantly, because we do care about people. At Mediplus, we really strive to make sure that each and every individual can be at their best.

speaker

It's really inspiring to be a part of an organization that really sees the culture as an integrated and natural part of the strategy and the foundation. for future business success, and not just as a short-term project. We do believe that our culture will have a positive impact on our employees, future talents, customers, and suppliers, which will help us deliver on our commitments.

speaker

Being part of AdLife Group has naturally a lot of advantages. We can cross-fertilize not only products, but naturally also insights about the European markets. We really promote AdLife Academy a lot. We think it's a perfect tool to develop kind of organization that will be critical and will play a critical part for our future success. Being part of AdLife and the geographical platform that has now been created, we have a lot of great companies being able to provide insights that was never doable before. With that portfolio, with the organization, with the people we have at hand, I can just say that the future looks promising for not only Mediplast, but for the group in general.

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