Alimak Group AB (publ)

Thank you and welcome everyone to this quarter three 2024 call. And with me, as you know, I have Sylva. So turning page. First, a short recap. You know, but I guess most of you know, we are a diversified global industrial company present all around the world, operating out of five customer centric divisions. And I think also important to mention is that we have some good fundamentals for our business supported by global trends like the health and safety focus, more regulations in this area, urbanization, more happening at height, but also in general in industrial investments. I think it's also a very important element which is helping driving our fundamentals for growth. We do have a leading market position in the niches where we operate. We have a large installed base through our history out in the market all around the world. And we also drive a very important service business in all our divisions. And with that base, of course, we have a lot to service and provide spare parts to. And overall, we also have a strong balance sheet and cash conversion as a group. And turning page. also here you know the new heights program our strategic roadmap 2020 we started the this thing it was a basically a reset of the group it had not delivered on financial targets we had the fundamental issues with the two acquisitions that was done and also operated with a heavy matrice organization so we put up this three-step plan which i would say we have delivered upon we delivered or reached the first set of financial targets last summer and now we are full speed to reach the next level which we set out to do within two to three years which means then one to two years from now and turning page we see we have a target of growing revenue six to ten percent a beta margin north of 18 leveraged below two and a half and a dividend payout between 40 to 60 percent of net profit Turning page, we of course also have sustainability targets. So first and foremost, now it's the CO2 target of 30% reduction, 25 over 19, but we're also in the process for science-based targets. Net promoter score towards our employees with the higher than 40, injury rate for our employees or our people here at the group for less than two, and that we also do an ESG assessment for more than 80% of our suppliers. Turning page and diving into the quarter, we delivered a solid performance in the quarter, I believe, and all divisions contribute well considering where they are at. As a group, we delivered 17.8% EBITDA adjusted, which is another significant step towards our financial targets of north of 18%. And also year to date now, we are above 17, 17.1. We continue our transformation of facade access so they made another step up in the quarter now well into the double digits with 11 and a half percent a beta margin we still have of course this challenging construction market which has been here for some time but we also see now as the or expect as the interest rates will start to come down that that market will start to improve going into 2025 We continue to manage the business and drive this new heights plan that we have. And this is also generating a good cash flow again for us. And we are down to 212 versus 229 in quarter two. A little bit more detail of the quarter. Order intake was 1,592 million SEK, down 5%, but down 2% at constant currencies, and this you could say organic. Strong performance we see in façade excess, industrial and wind divisions, while construction and HSBS division reported a lower order intake. of course we would have liked to see a higher order intake overall as a group but again considering i think where we see the market this way we think is okay but you know we continue to work hard also in all parts of the group to really accelerate profitable growth revenue was 1742 million sec up one percent or four percent in constant currencies positive contribution from hsps industrial and wind And EBITDA adjusted at MSEC 310 versus 279 last year, giving us this margin of 17.8% versus 16.1%. And it's an all-time high, both in earnings and margin. And also, as we know, supported by facade excess, but also all divisions, I would say. Turning page service. It's a fundamental part of our business, and each division has its own global service organization. And this is to ensure that we can attend to the full asset lifecycle, the full customer journey. And it provides both the customer and us with a sustainable business model. We help them with the machines throughout their life to optimize it and prolong it. and it also gives us you know this closeness to customer it gives us a resilient business model and also a nice profitable business so we see order intake increased two percent in the quarter six percent at constant currencies to 638 million sec up from 625 revenues increased one percent or four percent at constant currencies to msec 640 up from 633 and as i said you know creates resilience opportunities continues to grow and we continue also to actively grow or drive growth initiatives in in service turning page and diving into divisions first of all happy to see that we make another significant step in our transformation journey of the south access division order intake was 453 million sec up 20 or 25 in constant currencies and it's supported by a significant infrastructure project one in north america we also see good equipment orders in china and australia and in general a good service or aftermarket where we also drive retrofit refurbishments and this i've talked about before you know that a lot of machines are coming to end of life and that gives us a very nice opportunity to work on this concept. Revenue was 479 million SEK, down 6% or 2% down in constant currencies, but also supported here by a significant service growth. EBITDA at 55 million SEK, up from 40 million SEK last year, giving this margin of 11.5. up from 7.8 and it's driven by that we sign projects at better margin that is now starting to more and more come in into the business our improved project execution which we have talked a lot about but also of course supported by the service business which is an important piece turning page and the focus for this business remains you know we we drive the aftermarket the service business we drive customer focus technology leadership we work on our product portfolio we drive operation operational efficiency and you know the closing of the montech factory is going according to to plan We work on project execution, etc. But we also work intensely on putting more focus onto the infrastructure to become less dependent on the construction market, which we are sure will start to improve soon. But nevertheless, it's nice to see that we had a nice infrastructure project last year, and now we also get one again this year. However, I also want to mention that this business is driven by smaller, stable type of contracts and businesses, but also larger contracts. So yes, we had a larger contract in this quarter, but that's also quite normal that we do have larger contracts. but it's extra nice now that it's an infrastructure project turning page into construction and here we continue to face a challenging market but still i think overall we deliver a solid result order intake was 350 million sec in the quarter down from the 489 28 down or 27 at constant currency um and this is of course uh lower than what we wanted to see but we also need to keep in mind that it we measure towards an all-time high quarter last year and that we have had uh two good quarters in the bag so again a little bit of the lumpiness but again the market is also very soft and especially in europe so while we saw still you know new equipment and rental doors in north america and aipac relatively stable service continue to support and also the used equipment is an important factor for us in this so this diverse well diversified business model that we have the revenue was 427 million sec down three percent or flat at constant currencies a beta 74 million sec down from 82 giving this margin of 17.4 versus 18.7 And the margin is affected by the lower revenue, but also the fact that we keep up our investments in product development, because we know that the market will come back and we know that we have a lot of opportunity in widening our product portfolio. and also of course our focus on reducing cost and becoming more resilient is also continuing and that's also what you see i think you know and we'll continue to see that this business is much more resilient than before turning page Market, as I said, is challenging and we expect this to continue also in the next two, three quarters. But when we come to the mid part of 2025, we do expect that we should start to see some improvement in the investment will also in Europe. We continue to drive our well diversified business model. So you see on the mass climbing work platform, for example, we are working on that market specifically and driving this product range. And this has an enormous opportunity for the group. because it's a technology that can start to replace scaffoldings making a better safer more efficient today for workers than working in a scaffolding system and just scratched on that surface is a significant piece of business so these are things we continue to work on of course you know the used market to to have that flexibility in in our business model but also as i said in general product development so we feel very well positioned to capitalize when the market will start to rebound turning page and into height safety and productivity solutions we see that they deliver a resilient and good quarter overall Order intake was 312 million SEK, down 11% and 8% down at constant currency. Here with the distribution business, which is the core of this business, continue to develop well and grow. while we see some softer order intake for the elevator customers and that also comes after a very strong 2023 but also some of the business that we have towards rental and other direct customers affected by the construction market so overall you know the underlying business is is good here revenue was 335 million sec up three percent seven percent at constant currency um and yeah good performance mainly driven by the distribution business a beta 64 million sec up from 51 uh giving a margin of 19.2 versus the 15.6 again reflecting a good top line performance and and cost control and it's the margin level that it should be on this business turning page And here also we continue our focus to grow the business, accelerate growth. We are working closer to our customers and try to develop the product portfolio with them. We work on end user verticals. We work towards our distributors, both to create push and pull. so it's a full let's say set of tools to ensure that we we continue to grow this this business and you have some nice examples in this slide turning page to industrial here another strong quarter market i would say is stable it's good for us but it's really that we continue to execute on our plan Order intake was 342 million SEK, up 4% in the quarter or 8% at constant currency. Solid development for new equipment, where we see North America is the main driver in this quarter, but also in general steady aftermarket solid for this business. Revenue was 352 million SEK, up 7% or 11% at constant currency. So strong equipment revenue in the quarter, but also deliveries of projects. And we also, of course, drive, you know, more feet on the ground. So survey technicians we recruit and that is also, of course, generating higher revenues. EBITDA at 81 million SEC up from 73, giving this margin of 23% versus 21.9. And it's driven by increased revenue, good solid gross margin and cost control. Turning page. So yeah, as I said, we continue to execute on our plan. We are segment focused, really driving more and more down to each segment to learn more about our customers. We get more people on the ground closer to our customers. We spend time and money on product development and all to continue to drive this profitable growth journey that we have been on for a while. we see some nice developments in the power and infrastructure segment in the quarter also we had some nice orders on sov service operation vessels servicing offshore wind turbines and we saw the first business coming through to data centers where we have sold transport platforms Turning page and into wind. And also here, you know, wind has become a much more resilient and high performing business. Those of you that have followed us for a while know how this looked some years ago. And now quarter after quarter, they deliver a very good set of results. Order intake was 161 million sec in the quarter, up 6% or 11% at constant currency. Solid performance, new equipment across all, but also especially China. We are successful with our China for China strategy. And we continue also to have and see good progress in the aftermarket as more and more machines are installed out there. Revenue was 180 million SEC up 7% or 11% at constant currency. And strong sales, yeah, North Europe, China, EBITDA at 35 million SEC, up from 33 last year, giving a margin of 19.4% versus the 19.5 last year. And it's a continued stable margin driven by, you know, good control overall of the business. Turning page, wind update. Overall, you know, this market as I've been alluding to many times, it is very different to what we see for the other divisions. Here we have some few bigger OEMs. And also these bigger OEMs, they are challenged. They have been in losses, most of them, even though we see better and more stabilized results this year. It's an industry dependent on governments, regulations, subsidies, central decisions, etc. So it is a challenging market in that respect. uh where we have less control over it but still it's a growing business and we believe that this is a business that will also continue to grow as the world goes more electric wind will not disappear it's uh it's an important part of electrification and as you see it's a good business for us which we believe will continue so with that we are uh turning page and profit and loss and then i hand over to sylvan

Thank you, Ulle, and good morning, everybody. So on this slide, we now present a summary profit and loss statement. Regarding revenue and order intake, I'd like to make one technical comment for clarity. This year, organic and constant currency are the same, as our perimeter has not materially changed. And the foreign exchange rate evolution had a negative impact on our Q3 growth performance. Once again, we are glad to see an adjusted EBITDA growing significantly more than revenue in the quarter. It's an 11% growth for adjusted EBITDA versus 1% for revenue. This clearly indicates that we have overcompensated cost inflation by additional operational efficiencies. Items affecting comparability relate to the closure of the Mammondorf assembly facility, partially compensated by an earn-out adjustment with respect to the tall crane acquisition made in 2022. Last year, ISE represented a significant profit. The negative difference of 36 million SEC explains why reported EBITDA is almost stable. Below EBITDA, quarterly amortization is at its normal level, around 50 million SEC. Some intangible assets related to the tractor acquisition will be fully amortized by the end of this year, so quarterly amortization should be closer to 40 million SEC next year. FinanceNet is slightly down, mostly due to the reduced debt. Taxation rate in the quarter is down to 22.4%, mostly thanks to a favorable country mix. More marginally improved profitability and prospects allowed us to recognize some different tax assets related to tax losses carried forward. But our typical tax rate remained closer to 25%. And overall, that means we grow the bottom line, i.e. the net result by 10%. So let's now review the two main EBITDA drivers, gross margin and operating expenses. Gross margin is 120 basis points above Q3 2023. The most significant contributor to the improvement is the Facade Access Division, but as mentioned by Ulleh, industrial wind and HSPS achieve as well some more marginal improvements. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses are going up versus Q3 last year, but most of it is due to items affecting comparability. Beyond ISE, we have taken on some specific additional expenses, such as sale expenses for the industrial division or product development in construction and HSPS. We see those expenses as an investment for the future. Of course, we have had some cost inflation as well, typically labor. but we have worked on our cost base and broadly managed to compensate inflation by some cost optimization. So the result for the period was 155 million SEC. It's a 10% increase versus Q3 last year, as already mentioned. Excluding ISE, the result for the period was 157 million SEC. It's a 47% growth versus Q3 last year. And as a reminder from previous page, this high growth comes from a higher adjusted EBITDA combined with below EBITDA items all coming down. EPS was 1.46 SEC in the quarter versus 1.32 in Q3 last year. And adjusted for ISE and acquisition related amortization, EPS was 1.79 SEC versus 1.46 in Q3 2023. So we move now to operating cash flows, and I start with a comment on Q3 2023, which is high comparable. We enjoy an unusually strong reduction in working capital in that quarter. In Q3 2024, cash flows were overall good, with strong performance in Facade Access, HSPS and Industry Hall. Last quarter, I mentioned some temporary working capital increases in the Facade Access and Construction divisions. This was reversed in Q3 for Facade Access, but not yet for Construction, where we see now this happening in Q4. Looking forward in the coming quarters, we plan a bit more capex, as it has been temporarily very low in the first three quarters of this year, around 1% of revenue, whilst we expect to be on average around 2%. So our business model definitely remains a capex-like model, but I just want to indicate that 1% has not become the new norm. So moving now to net debt and ROCI, net debt decreased by 157 million SEC in the quarter, and that is mostly driven by the operating cash flows. Leverage is at 2.12, down from 2.29 at the end of Q2 2024, in line with our target of being below 2.5. And as already mentioned, we will continue to focus on operating cash flows, which will contribute to future deleveraging. Our priorities for capital allocation remain unchanged. We will invest in organic growth. I alluded earlier to sales and R&D expenses. We continue to actively work on acquisition opportunities allowed by the decreasing leverage. And we will apply the dividend policy, although ultimately this is a board proposal and an AGM decision. One word on ROSI to conclude the financial section. It's an important metric for us and it is slightly growing in the quarter to 21.7% excluding goodwill and 9.1% including goodwill. We will continue our work to gradually uplift ROSI. And on this, I hand over to Ulle.

Yeah, thank you, Sylva. So turning page then to the summary slide. uh it was a solid quarter where we see that we continue to develop the group into new heights and new heights yeah it's a short recap you know the four strategic drivers that that was fundamental and still is fundamental to our business it's the customer obsession technology leadership driving everyday operational efficiency and recognizing people being the most important asset of the group uh we also set up an effective decentralized organization in the beginning with four divisions now five which have full responsibility for their business both pnl and balance sheet and they are driving also the full customer journey or asset life cycle as i talked about you know they both take care of the you know customer needs understanding what that is the products the solutions and the full aftermarket they they attend to uh we have built a strong culture around this and also to ensure that we can make decisions locally close to customers and drive a business-minded attitude throughout the organization i think this has been a fundamental piece which is continuing to service the group well so we have a solid financial position now you know so as silver also was saying so we can continue to invest and we will do that And also we expect that this difficult or challenging, if you like, market sentiment, especially around construction, due to the higher interest rates, will start to improve. And that we in the midst of next year should start to see also positive effects in the market for us. And we will also talk in general more about these things. We have an investor update coming up on November 20, where we will give you a little bit more insight into also how we will continue to drive accelerated growth going forward. So with that, I would like to thank all our employees, customers and partners for this quarter. And we turn page and move into Q&A.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Andreas Koski from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, Ole, Sylvain. Three questions, starting with facility access. where we had another solid margin improvement, I would say. If you look at your backlog in facade access specifically, would you say that the margins are higher in the backlog compared to what we have seen in Q3 and Q2? And where should we expect the margin for facade access to be in 2026? Yeah. In relation to your margin target, the group of more than 18%.

Yeah. Hi, Andreas, and thank you for that question. You know that it's a small echo here. It's a bit annoying, but I hope that it works well on the line. we continue to work on this transformation of the business and that's something we will continue and you know part of that was you know ensure that we take contracts at the right pricing and part of it is contract project management and part of it is operational efficiency in our daily operations But of course, we started early on to ensure that we priced in a different way than before. And that also means that our order book is better today from a profitability perspective than it was before. But we are still working through all contracts. We still have, as we said before, some of that with us this year. And we also expect some of it to be with us next year. But then it will start to fade out. so 2026 we clearly see that or expect that we should be at the higher level we should be higher in 25 and we should also fundamentally be higher in 26. the target for us is that we see that this business and could deliver margins in line with the group targets whether we will be fully there 2020 or not, but we should be significantly closer at least where we are today.

Understood. Thank you. And then my second question is related to the group overall. I tried to calculate the backlog development for the group, and I sort of conclude that the backlog for the group is down between five and 10%. compared to the end of Q3 last year? And maybe if you want to confirm if that is correct, but if it is correct, how do you look at the possibility to be able to grow sales in 2025 versus 2024, despite the quite meaningfully lower backlog? Do you think it will be possible to grow sales that year?

We absolutely think it will be possible to grow sales next year, and it's also about timing of the backlog. I can't give you an exact number, but yes, the backlog is a bit lower, but it's also higher quality. And then also, we work and continue to invest and we also believe that you know when market starts to improve that that that will also affect the shorter term type of business you know doesn't need that type of long order book or doesn't have that type of long order book so so we absolutely still believe that next year will or should be a good decent year for the group absolutely

Understood and then lastly just on construction because we saw a relatively weak order intake in this quarter and I think the book to bill was close to 0.8. We saw a similar situation in Q4 2023 when the order intake was meaningfully below the revenue level and then in Q1 2024 we saw a significant sequential drop in sales. Is that what we should now also expect for the construction division in Q4, i.e. that sales will come down because of the weak order intake that we have seen in this quarter? And coming back to the Q1 development, when that happened, the margin was relatively weak in the construction segment. And is that also what we should expect for Q4, or will there be different dynamics this time? Thank you.

Definitely it will be some different dynamics but of course it's the fact that when order intake comes down it also affects sales. So as it looks you know yes we also expect that we should see some lower sales coming through in quarter four due to the lower order intake this quarter. uh but we also but it's also different dynamic because it's also again a business that you can compensate or get during the quarter we don't expect the same type of effects like we saw last time And then we have also worked on the flexibility in the cost. And as I also said last time, we were a little bit unprepared. There were things there we should have seen, which we didn't see. And now we are well prepared. So it will not be the same type of result effects neither as we had in quarter one.

And what does the order pipeline look for you in construction for the fourth quarter? Are we going to see a solid bounce, do you think? on the order side?

I can't comment upon that. We have those details, but the market remains stable. And we expect the market to remain challenging, as I said, you know, in the next quarters. But then there is so you can have lower quarters and you can have higher quarters. You know, the market is the same in quarter one and two this year where we had much order intake so it was nothing in the market in the quarter three you know so we are continuing understood yeah thank you thank you very much thank you as a reminder if you wish to ask a question please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad are no more questions at this time so i hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments yes thank you we have a written question here and i think i will leave that to sylvain but i can read the question could you elaborate on why purchase of property plant and equipment are much lower this nine month period

Thank you, Uli. I don't think you should read anything specific in the phasing of the CAPEX this year. We have had some plans for this year and it happens that we will invest more in Q4 than in the first three quarters, in comparison with the average in the first three quarters. uh but it you know just phasing of the projects internally nothing really specific to be reported on that and on the second comment uh you know we we are the question i will read it first you know so you know what it is what is the estimated opex run rate for the group So we work on both accelerating the growth and controlling our costs. So looking forward, we do expect some improvement. So a lower OPEX percentage as a percentage of revenue. We not give a specific number, but clearly that's the objective and that's one of the way to drive higher EBITDA.

yeah but as you have said several times also and we have said during the presentation we focus a lot on investments in sales and marketing and uh and product development that's why this is also somewhat higher than what we would expect longer term as you say yeah it's a combination you know but if you look at the performance this year you know we've managed to keep it almost stable excluding isc despite the cost inflation so you know that's a sign that we we work actively on our cost base

And then that allows us to make those investments.

So then we have another question here. Could you again tell us about working capital strategy for the short term differences per segment?

Absolutely. The strategy is clear. We want to control working capital and when we can reduce it. But at the same time, we need to be flexible when we see opportunities in the market. When we can take some businesses with temporary increase in working capital, we do it. And this happens, this has happened this year. You know, in Q2, we increased working capital in Facet Access. This was reversed in Q3. Now we have increased as well in construction. We do expect some reversal in Q4. In the long run, we don't expect working capital to grow much more than revenue, you know, as a percentage of revenue. So that is clearly our strategy.

Okay. So then,

that was the last question also on the so i'll give it excuse me we have one more question in the queue from the teleconference yeah okay good let's take that the next question comes from anders yes from kepler chevreux please go ahead yeah just just one more more question on on the margin side relating to to wind you have now

had a relative stable margin at least above 18 percent for at least maybe five out of six quarters it was a bit of a drop there in Q4 but looking ahead now is this 18 to 20 percent margin a sort of a margin we should calculate within wind going forward or can it also be a bit

lumpy for for maybe one out of four quarters going forward or or how should we look on the profitability on on wind yeah it's a good question but also partly a difficult question because and as i was alluding to and i've been saying many times you know that market is something which is more out of our control and it's also driven by some bigger oems But we have been doing extremely well, I would say, with a solid business model and with a strong team, being close to our customers over time, which has given us this good position. And we, of course, expect and we work every day to remain in that position. But I also have highlighted before that it is a high margin to be in this business. If you look into our main customers, they are some of them in losses, some of them with very, very marginal profit levels. So that if we are north of 15, 16% over time, I think overall we should be pleased But at the same time, you know, now we have, as you said, been used to north of 18 for a while. So we will work hard to also do what we can to remain that level.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Thank you. And also maybe some quick comments relating to potential M&A going forward. As you write, the funnel is starting to fill up with interesting candidates. I understand you can maybe say too much on this but is there anything you can say on maybe any geographies or any particular area which you are more focused in complementing with M&A in the business compared to other segments or is there anything you could mention regarding that?

Not much, without being too specific. But of course, we have five divisions. We think that all five divisions have a potential to handle acquisitions for the time being. uh not in every geography in all divisions you know but but all divisions can do so we look for things and we are actively you know building up the funnel for for all divisions it's around service it's around product it's around mark or market technology you know etc so so it's a quite wide thing and and then it's of course not only in our hands it's also someone on the other side of the table that needs to you know and we need to come together at the right timing So you will start to see the first things in which geography or which division will be very difficult to say, and we are not ready to disclose anything around that. But the funnel starts to fill up. We have the means to do things now, and that's part of our strategy. So we will do, but we will ensure that we do the right things. and at the right price etc you know so i don't want to or we don't want to create something that we shouldn't do so so we also have patience in that wonderful well thank you for answering my questions good thank you then we have uh let me see yeah let me see we have a couple of other uh questions but uh they are have they have already been answered i think you know that we got on the written side so unless there are anything more now in the next second i think that uh no it's nothing here on written then i think we are over with the questions and i hand back to you centrally no then nothing happens there then i would like to say a big thank you for everyone listening in and thank you to our employees delivering another strong quarter and until next time