10/24/2023

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

over here sitting with Ulf and also Ewell Davidson who will be taking over as default going forward. So we're all three here in the room in Malmö. So then we'll get started. First slide is Bayref at a glance. As you can see our rolling club continues to increase. I think more interesting here is that we We joined a new market here in South Korea as an acquisition during the quarter, so now in 45 countries around the world. And of course, we'll come back to also we made another add-on acquisition in the quarter in the U.S. as we have been discussing that earlier. Moving over to the next slide, a little bit highlights of the quarter. Sales of almost $8.5 billion at stake. Continue our strong growth, plus 42%. Of course, the majority in this quarter supported by our acquisition in the US, but also other acquisitions that we've done during the year. So continue to have a good growth path in total. Organic sales was minus 4% in the quarter. We'll come back a little bit what that relates to. I would say the majority is in HVAC and one day less. And then the acquisition, I would say, performed very well. And we continue to have a good tailwind on the currency. The EBITDA continues to be very strong, with margins of 11.3%. So it continues to be good development in our business, driving by a continued strong gross margin. So we grow EBITDA at 54%. And then also, as we have been fairly clear about, The cash flow is now turning in a good way, record cash flow for Bayref in a quarter in Q3 as we are reducing our inventories, flashing accounts receivable, but also we'll come back to quite a negative effect that we're not buying anything or very low from our suppliers and we expect cash flow to continue to be strong here in Q4. The result, an increase of 32% in EPS that continues to grow by 8%. So I would say good quarter, good margins, and a strong cash flow in Q3. Moving on to the next slide. If you look at our different product groups as we split up our business, on the organic side, commercial industrial refrigerants continues to be in a stable level and good activity, plus 3% in the quarter. OEM continues to grow, a little bit of a mixed picture, but very positive in Europe, where our main company, TSM Freedom Energy, continues to have a very good development, double-digit growth, and some more challenges in APEC driven by China. We expect China to improve as we move into Q4. So I would say very happy with the OEM development in Europe, stable on the commercial industrial refrigeration, Then we have HVAC minus 11% and I think it's important just to have a little bit of reference point. We still see good activities in the HVAC segment on the underlying business but having some respect from last year in Q4 and Q1 we had 25 to 30% organic growth, a lot driven by a chaotic situation on energy prices, gas and oil and a lot of people moving into these type of products. So underlying feels good, but compared to those type of comps, it will be a challenge for the next couple of quarters until we normalize our business. But in general, I would say good activities in that area as well. So that drives our minus 4%. Inventory, we will come back to a little bit more under Wolf. North America, I will touch upon a little bit later. I think on the acquisition side, I have to denounce moving into South Korea, buying one of the market leaders there in refrigeration and see a good growth path by introducing our natural refrigerant products and expanding the business with new products. I'm very happy about that entry. I also think it's important to mention Amsoil supplied strategic add-on from us and we expect more acquisition as we continue to grow in the US. A fairly active quarter also on the acquisition, and we'll come back to, I would believe that the acquisition were financed by our cash flow we generated in the quarter. That's why net debt hasn't changed, but a very good addition to the company. Next slide. Looking at EMEA, I would say it continues to operate at a very good level on the margin side. Of course, also flushing out a lot of inventory. I would say gross margin continues to be strong in this segment and we expect this to continue. We also expect the inventory to continue to move down here in Q4. So we're getting a good traction on the cash flow. I would say in AMEA, good growth on the OEM side. Refrigeration and then HVAC a little bit more challenged Most of this growth in HVAC came in Europe the last year Q3, Q4 and Q1 related to the energy situation while APAC was more stable and of course the US driven by other areas and we'll come back to that. We also acquired the company Condex here and they're sort of consolidating into the strong HVAC interview as well. I would say, in general, good development on REMP and OEM in Europe. And then high comps on the HVAC side, that's affecting us. But in general, I would say still good activity. Moving on to APAC. APAC is now moving into summer season. Mid-October is usually where we start seeing it in Australia and New Zealand, which are our biggest markets. So I would say a good start to the season there, while of course, the U.S. are moving more into the off-season. So continue to be an active market for us. We mentioned South Korea stable on the market side, but as volume now starts to increase in Q4 and Q1, of course, we'll get a pickup there on the volume side and start promising this region. We look forward to follow this here for the high speeds for the business. Next slide. Then North America. Happy to see that we're growing at a higher sales in Q3 versus Q2. So I would say a stable market for us in our regions. A little bit warmer in Q3 versus Q2 compared to last year. That's driving some of the math also. towards the end of the quarter we started seeing better product supply from our key HVAC supplier that helped us drive sales. So we're now in Q4 getting more and more into a stable supply chain situation. So we believe that of course will help in 2024 as well from gaps in 2023. So all in general, positive. Still up in the US, stable side of the margins. More equipment sales in Q3 versus Q2, where there's more repair. But in general, a good and stable development in the U.S. And of course, during the quarter, we added Amstel that we're already starting to work together with. It's aligning our existing territory as the same strategic supplier. Good possibilities for us to put on an expanded platform. And then also just towards the end of the quarter, we started to launch private label things here. So we're very interested to follow this moving forward. So in general, very happy with the U.S. performance and the outlook going forward. And we'll come back a little bit on how regulation is accelerating in the U.S. as well, but I think it will have a good impact for us on the long term. So moving on to the next slide. 42% overall growth, organic 4%. We'll come back a little bit more on that one. Good EV day growth and then positive EPS growth as well. So next slide. Similar here on the sales side, more broken when you see the currency continues to be a tailwind for us in the euro and the dollars continue to be strong versus the six. And then M&A plus 39%, so I would say we've continued good development on the M&A side and their growth as well, which gives us 8.5 billion in sales. Here you can see, of course, the historical sales that we continue to perform very, very well, plus 42% compared to plus 38% Q3 last year. You can see the difference here is, of course, the organic growth coming into very strong comps. driven mainly on the HVAC side, as we said in Q3, Q4 and Q1 last year. But we'll continue to have a good acquisition growth and we'll come back to what we see on the HVAC side. But in general, I would say still good activity in most of our regions in the world. Moving on to the next slide. I guess a new slide explaining on the HVAC to clarify a little bit what we see. Now if you look at our extract business the last five to ten years it's more an organic kegar of eight to ten percent of the year which I believe is very good organic kegar but then you saw in Q3, Q4 and Q1 you had extremely high growth levels a lot related to the situation on of people buying air-to-air heat pumps to manage electricity, gas, oil, and other solutions in a lot of countries. And now we see a more normal pattern. But we still see long-term very good possibilities in the heat pump side, the electrification of the world, also the banning of gas. So long-term, the trend still looks very strong. But of course, the short-term are fairly strong targets. And that's also saying the underlying activity is still fairly good in the markets. Okay, moving on to the next slide. EBITDA growth, we went over that. 54% driven by, of course, higher sales with our acquisition, but also continue very good margin development, 11.3% EBITDA margin in the quarter. Moving on to the next slide. Next slide, here you see a longer trend on the margin development as you can see here now Q2, Q3 which Q2 and Q3 will be our highest quarter on the market because it's two highest sales quarters and then the US follows a more similar trend like Europe on having Q2 and Q3 as high seats when it's of course really hot and then now as we move into Q4 and Q1 it's more replacement with maintenance and service, but you're also moving more to heat pump. The U.S. does have a large heat pump sales now in Q4 and Q1, and as you know, in Europe, we're moving more and more into the heat pump segment as well. And then APAC is moving into summer season, so of course that's a strong cooling segment of our business. So moving on to the next slide. And here's the EBTA growth. So we can see 2023, 2022 plus 70% and 54% above that this year. So we are pretty satisfied our margin of business are developing in Bay Rep.

speaker
Christoffer
Chief Financial Officer

Okay. Okay. Then we have the next slide which is the P&L statement. And if you look then at the amount, Gustaf went through the EBITDA. So if you go further down, you see the financial net is minus 158 million. which is then impacted negatively by an exchange deviation of $40 million. So the underlying financial net is then down to $120 million. And then the tax in quarter, that is a normal 25%, versus last year, 24%. But the 25% is then what we have been having for the last quarters. And then I move over to the next slide, and we also talked about earnings per share, so there's an 8% increase. And then the next slide then, operating cash flow. So I have three slides on cash flow, just to explain the delta. So this first slide here is then the movement from Q3 2022 to Q3 2023. As you can see then, we have increased EBITDA, also have a very positive movement in working capital with 481 million. slightly higher capex, 55 million, and leasing, 27 million, and then others, 13 million. And as Christoffel said, the nice thing in the quarter three that was actually the operating cash flow, 1.1 billion, financed the M&A activity in the quarter over close to one billion, so the net debt is the same during the quarter as we entered it. The next slide is then explaining the movement in the quarter. So in the quarter we had EBITDA of 1.1 billion, and then we had a working capital movement of 167 million, the capex minus 90 and leasing 125, leaving them to 1.1 billion. But just to explain the 167 million, the working capital movement, we have a next slide showing the specification of that. So we have then a release of inventory of 525 million, We also released on accounts receivable of $770 million. And then the negative side on the inventory reduction is that we are buying less and then we're also getting less accounts payable. So we have a negative delta or negative movement on accounts payable with $848 million. And then we have other working capital items, which is basically accruals related to salaries like vacations, et cetera. So that had a negative impact in the quarter. So that leaves us with plus 167 million in the quarter. The next slide is then showing the quarterly development of cash flow and as Christopher said earlier, this is the best quarter we have had in cash flow. So 1.1 billion and hopefully we will see a good development also in Q4 2023. And then my final slide is then the net debt, which we have then the leverage of net debt EBITDA of 230 reported. But if I then exclude the leasing, which is mainly our rental contracts on our branches, and then the pension, we have a leverage of 194 versus last year of 231. So that's also improving. Then I hand over to Christoffer on the last slide here.

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so a little bit, a lot of summary points, but you heard most of it. The way we summarized the quarter with good profitability, strong cash flow, stays growth, growth here continues to be high, driven by the acquisition agenda we have. EVDA continue to follow that growth and of course continue to have improving margins that's driving that even further. Cash flow of almost 1.1 billion, and I think we'll be very, bullish on that and we continue to be that in Q4. This is of course something that we are working actively with. We also have in the US supply chain is improving, stable market here in Q3, good activities in most of the segments in the US and we continue to have good margins and good activities also on the integration from private label a lot of activities on refrigeration that will grow in the future and branches investing in. And then of course, first add-on acquisition in the US, Emsco Supply, happy to welcome them to our US platform and more to come in that area. And then also entering a new market in South Korea, one of the market leaders in refrigeration where we think there's a lot of value creation we can do over the years and also continue to grow in new markets. Summary Q3, I think we're good performance in general, good activities on the acquisition side, improving balance sheet at a good level, good cash flow going forward. If you look at a couple of things that I think is fairly relevant, that has been under the quarter, is the West's decision under the update of the gas regulation in EU. so we further accelerate the phase out which means that they will take down the quotas even further until 2030 and a couple of things that will happen long term with this acceleration is that of course it will be tighter to get access to the refrigerants and we expect that long term prices will get positive in this journey but I think even more important of course is that you will have to accelerate your phase out of all your equipment running on old F gases because we can already now see a tightening of the supply which means that you have a risk of not getting hold of enough quotas to supply the demand out there. So I think very positive for the OEM business for us long term to drive the acceleration of phasing out all the old system. Of course very good for the environment. We believe it's a positive thing. Of course, you get more regulation on how you're going to move into natural refrigerants on your HVAC system, your heat pumps, and that will also, when that comes in a couple of years' time, have, of course, a different type of price picture with these type of products. So, good long-term trends accelerating on the FCAT in the EU. Then also in the US, relevant to mention, is that by 2025 HVAC regulation is moving into natural refrigerants. There was a lot of talk before regulation that was manufacturing date, now they're moving it to installation date, so it's also accelerating and it's also going to have, of course, a long-term positive effect on our platform in the U.S. as we expected. So, continuously good trends in the the changes and the phase out of the product that's beneficial for Bayer F. We talked about the US getting better on the supply chain, which we expect in 2024 to get a little bit of a pick-up so we can have a better product. Portfolio notes, of course, our main supplier is already prepared for the natural reframing in 2025, so it feels good to have a very good partner in the US. We also launched the Sinclair at the end of the quarter. It's going to have a more effect on 2024, and it also allows us to be a little bit more aggressive in segments that are not active today with the platform, so positive. And for that, the refrigeration continues to grow very nicely for our stuff from a small base as we disclosed before. We do have respect for the next couple of quarters on the comps, especially on the HVAC side. As I said, we're going 25-30%, 26% in Q3, 29% in Q4, and 17% in Q1. So we'll continue to be a headwind on the comps, on the organic side, on the HVAC, until we get back to more normal comparables, especially in Europe. This is mainly in Europe, while back in the U.S., of course, it's in a different situation. It looks like cash flows will continue to... do well and we expect to be stronger in Q4 than Q3 and of course that gives us opportunity on that position side versus working on our balance sheet and debt. So I think we're in a very good position on the balance sheet and we can choose a little bit as we continue to generate the cash flow. Because we do continue to have a good pipeline on high positions and working with companies we have both in the US but also in Europe and APEC so we expect to continue to drive that strategic growth there in the future as well. So that is the last comment, so we can open up for questions. Thank you for listening.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial star 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star 5 again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Carl Ragnestam from Nordea. Please go ahead.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst at Nordea

Good morning, it's Carl here from Nordea. A couple of questions. Firstly, could you say something about the pricing versus volume development for heritage in the quarter? And also, I mean, of course, you said something about the supplier delivery issues slightly normalized, but would you say that it's back to 100% deliveries as of October? And why don't you think we should see a catch-up effect already in Q4? You're more talking about 2024. Is it primarily from a catch-up or also maybe from gained market share, so to speak? How should we look at it?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, on the first one, we don't disclose the price volume. There is still a price component in the U.S., from price increases that were coming through. So you still have a positive price increase but I would say in Europe and APEC it's more stable, much less of a price and it's more old volume. But if you look at the second question, I think it's more a conservative view because as you move into Q4 and Q1 you're moving into more heating seats and of course you can have some kind of catch up there, but for us it's more as you move into the summer season next year where you can have a real impact. But as we did today, you know, in the U.S. last week, and we were getting in, you know, the final filling up for the package heat pump for the season, so you still have some delays, but in general today it's not an issue. So, I mean, you might have a but I don't expect Q4 and Q1 to be too much affected by it. I'd rather see Q2 and Q3 as we wrap up the season, we'll be in a much better position than last year. And two, of course, With the regulation now, when we get into ATL already with the installation date in January of 2025, we're going to start seeing those products getting on the market already Q3, Q4 next year. And that's, of course, a product that's priced very differently. So that's also positive, and I think it's positive for us that our partner is, I would say, on the technology-wise already there on that technology for the ATL. In general, I'll see more of that coming towards Q3, Q4 next year.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst at Nordea

Speaking of the new product in the US, how will you handle the shift to the new product inventory and supply chain-wise? And also, do you have any views on the pricing? We have heard what Kerry is talking about, etc. But is it low double digits you expect as well for you? And also, Could you remind us of the equipment mix of Heritage so far, as well as with the new company entering here?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so there's a lot of questions in there. I'll try and answer all of them. You have to remind me if I miss something. But in general, this regulation just came out two weeks ago, so we're still going through it together with our partners on the equipment side. But I think what will happen is that you'll start already in Q3, Q4 phasing out the old products and reducing your inventory there and getting the new products online because you need to phase it in the right way because by January, as it looks today, first 2025, you cannot sell the old product. That's why you will start seeing the new products going through already in Q3, Q4 because that's the only way to do the phase out in a controlled manner. But we are discussing that together with our partner, our main partner in there, and they're, as I said before, fairly long on the product portfolio. They've been the one that converted first into the technology that's already ready for natural refrigerants. I think when you talk about pricing on this product portfolio, My guess is also based on what I'm hearing from Watsco and Care that's listed. We're talking to our partner, but you hear anything from 10 to 20 percent, but let's have a conservative view and work with 10 percent, but that's what you're hearing in the market for these new products in there. Then if you look at the equipment side of Heritage, And I know you had a question there on Amscore as well. Heritage is about 35%, 35-40% equipment. And Amscore is a little bit more, running around 50% equipment.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst at Nordea

Very clear. And also entering Q4 in A-Track. I mean, you were talking about tough comps. We saw it in the quarter as well. But also, I guess you and your business, looking at the organic growth, will have a different mix. I mean, Asia coming in into high season. seemingly better momentum than Europe also in Europe you're entering a heating season versus a cooling season where we're maybe talking more air to water products so how should we look at that mix playing out entering Q4 versus what we saw in Q3 it doesn't sound like at least an acceleration of the negative organic growth but could it even be an improvement or what do you think?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

I don't see an improvement right now in there. I think when you move into Q4, Q1 last year you were just trying, and I think it's mainly in Europe, in APEC, yes, but it's a smaller part of our business. You're in cooling activities now and the US is of course moving into there, but that's not organic. It's mainly in the EU side of the business, but we don't see any acceleration and also remember what drove this very good growth those quarters was a lot of people buying air to air heat pumps for heating to balance their systems in the house so no I don't see an acceleration of HXL3 2.1 and the final one back here is I mean on OEM

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst at Nordea

losing indeed in the quarter. Also here, of course, tough comps. But have you seen, I guess we also heard Carrier saying that customers becoming more hesitant or cautious in terms of placing orders. Is that what you see? And have you also seen an increased demand recently given the tightening quotas in Europe?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

No, I would say that if you look at our Q3, of course, I would say that we are... doing better on the commercial side and a lot of competitors than what you can look at. Europe was still double digit growth for us in Q3. On our M side, we were strong and of course we also have Fenergy that's going extremely well supporting the whole OEM side. You had a negative development. You still had comps of plus 28% last year. We're happy. Of course, we feel that on the retail side the more hesitant on the quotes. But in general, Europe was still good activities, and APAC was more challenging. But retail is lower, but that's not our only customer segment in the business. But retail is a bit slower at the moment. We expect that to pick up more next year. And as you said, this new quarter level has just hit the market. So I expect that to start moving in and we start seeing that towards Maybe after the summer next year when it starts getting tighter and tighter because that's usually when the installers and the customer will start reacting to it. We are one of the biggest importers in the world here in Europe we call it and we are fighting hard for our customers to find enough refrigerants that will only get tighter next year. But when we start seeing it on the OEM side, I think it's probably another 12 months before that starts seeing on the equipment side. Very good.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst at Nordea

Thank you so much. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Adela Dashian from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

speaker
Adela Dashian
Analyst at Jefferies

Yes. Good morning, everyone. My first question relates to the HVAC development in this quarter. And if you could please give us some more color, how much, if any, the near-term uncertainties regarding heat pumps affected developments in Q3, especially in Europe or primarily in Europe?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, that's part of it. Of course, I think that moves more into for us as being a especially from the cooling side, moving now to, of course, more heat pump weather type of market. And I think, yeah, we see, you know, also, you know, first of all, it's the same situation on HF, both on the cooling and heating. It's very tough pumps compared to last year. And you also have some markets where you're waiting a little bit on incentive models to pull them That's a big market. Germany is starting. France, I would say, is positive, and then you have Italy and other markets. I would say that we also need to start getting back to strong growth in that segment, short-term, long-term. I think we're all seeing the same trends as we move into electrification and the Green Deal. But you need some supportive incentive models coming in place in Q4 or Q1 to support it. But, I mean, the market is still there, but of course not at all at the same level as it was last year. But I also think you have on the heat pump side a lot of inventory in the market that needs to flush out for some of the other bigger OEMs in the market, if that answers your question.

speaker
Adela Dashian
Analyst at Jefferies

Yeah, no, it does for sure. And then maybe also just a clarification point on the earlier comment that you made about organic growth in Q4. Did you say that you do not expect an acceleration in growth in Q4, or was it an accelerated decline in Q4?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

I think what I said, that with the question on the HVAC side, we didn't see any improvement or acceleration versus the comps as we're seeing right now because you had HVAC very strong growth during Q4 and Q1 and a lot of that was supported by the energy situation that we had in Europe last year and as I said the KER of our HVAC in the last five years is more 8 to 10 percent. So I don't see an improvement on the HVAC versus comps right now.

speaker
Adela Dashian
Analyst at Jefferies

Yeah, that's what I also thought. Okay, but then how should... Yes, sir.

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

Go ahead.

speaker
Adela Dashian
Analyst at Jefferies

Yep. How is that being offset by your developments in OEM, as example? I mean, you mentioned that you entered North America with a push by the end of the quarter. Could that contribute at all into Q4, or is that more going to be a 2024 event?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

I believe it's more going to be 2024. But it's going to be a pretty fast race when you come into Q3, Q4 next year to manage that transition, a little bit like we saw when we went into the new series requirements in there. So that's more moving into towards Q3, Q4 next year for the U.S.

speaker
Adela Dashian
Analyst at Jefferies

All right. And then also on North American heritage, specifically in Q3, I mean, we at least estimate that you experienced a decline in organic growth last quarter. Would you say that that has now moved into positive territory or is there still declining organic growth in North America?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

No, I would say it's moved from nine to flat stable development in Q3.

speaker
Adela Dashian
Analyst at Jefferies

Excellent. And then maybe also if I can touch on the margins that were rather robust despite the volume development in the quarter. How would you say, how sustainable is this level as you're moving into next year if we were to assume the demand to get incrementally worse at this point. Could you maybe also then speak more about if you're planning to implement any type of efficiency measures to keep up with the new base as margins span today, or how should we think about that for next year?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

I think, as you remember, there were questions last time as we flushed out inventory. We saw that a margin challenge and I think, as I said then, that no, I don't see that. I see stable margins, you know, strong gross margin across the board. And of course those things not only just happen, we're working with that and we are improving it. And of course if you continue to see, you know, we still seem very positive on the long-term market, so we're still investing in sales resources, we're investing on the OM side, Our ambition is of course to manage the margin and we don't have any targets or goals or indications that margins should be coming down in the future if the market not completely changes. So where we sit today is still in a stable way.

speaker
Adela Dashian
Analyst at Jefferies

Great. I think that's all for me. Thank you.

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Carl Bockvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.

speaker
Carl Bockvist
Analyst at ABG Sundal Collier

Thank you. Good morning. My first question is on heritage, if it would be possible for you to give any comments on how heritage performed compared to a year ago on both sales and profitability.

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

We don't go in organically as an acquisition. I think the comment I would say that we saw an improvement in Q3 over Q2. That was driven by a couple of factors. One, if you compare it to last year, and I know some of you are following it, the number of cooling degree days. We had a stronger heat wave in Q3 than Q2 compared to last year, so that was a positive driver. We also started to get a better product supply, so we could work a little bit better with our customers. So, you know, it was an improvement over Q2. So, you know, it was a stable development over last year in Q3 that, you know, was a very, very strong quarter. And on the margin side, things used to be stable. We had a little bit more equipment in Q3 versus Q2 that affected the gross margin and mix. But in general, on our product groups, We're running on similar gross margins as we did last year.

speaker
Carl Bockvist
Analyst at ABG Sundal Collier

Understood. And then just going back to the comments you made during your initial part of the presentation, did you say that the HVAC part of your business had had a 7% to 8% annual organic growth rate for the last 10 years? Did I understand the year comment there?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

No, I said the last five years.

speaker
Carl Bockvist
Analyst at ABG Sundal Collier

Five years. Okay. Understood. And then just on a bit on the prior question there regarding margins, but just do you see any changes in the pricing environment or either from customers pushing back on lower freight rates or revaluations or inventory adjustments or anything like that? Either if it affects you positively or negatively?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

I think it's a mix of things and when that adds up together it's very stable. Of course we have some tougher situation in the markets on HVAC but we're holding our situation well. We're also of course getting some advantages on the products that we are buying, strategically we're looking into it so not too much discussion on freight prices and we didn't have surcharges or anything related to that anyway in our business. So right now it continues across the board to be stable and if I look into what I'm seeing next year from our suppliers, you're seeing stable on the HVAC side and you're seeing price increases on the commercial refrigeration and refrigerants. How much, let's see. So in general, it continues to be at a stable level where we sit right now.

speaker
Carl Bockvist
Analyst at ABG Sundal Collier

Understood. Then more of a strategic one. Over the past couple of years, you have focused quite intensely on business improvements and the higher M&A pace, and you've seen the benefits of that within your P&L. Now, as supply constraints are easing, when do you think you can kind of go back to the more long-term strategic initiatives that you planned to implement on the working capital side?

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

We're working on that and I think that's something we can come back to next year. Right now, we're looking into the U.S., how we set that up with our new platform. So we're running through the inventory terms in the U.S. that of course will be positive for Bayer because most of the suppliers there are three to four weeks. Now we will flush out our inventory and go back to you know, the levels we've been at before the pandemic next year. But also here in Europe and Asia, we are working with the inventory set up, also with our suppliers, because of course a lot of our suppliers on the HVAC side, we do have some constraints on lead tanks that is manufactured in Southeast Asia. But we can come back to a little bit more details of that next year. That will be a focus here for us over the next you know, strategic on the next three to five years on the capital efficiency coming from that, especially inventory.

speaker
Carl Bockvist
Analyst at ABG Sundal Collier

Understood. That's all for me. Thank you.

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Paul.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

No, no, I mean thank you for listening, thanks for a good discussion. Maybe the summary went over. I think there are no real surprises here and strategic in long term. I believe things look very promising and I think also generating the cash flow, you know, coming through here now on the inventory side also gives us a lot of lead way on the balance sheet and how we continue to grow.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you very much.

speaker
Paul
Chief Executive Officer

And if you have another specific question, you can reach out to me or Ulf going forward. So thanks for calling in.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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