10/25/2023

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of the third quarter report of Bravida. And as usual, it's myself, Mattias Johansson, who will take you through this presentation together with my CFO, Bravida. Welcome. And I think we start immediately. The agenda, our position in the Nordic market and then of course the Q3 numbers etc. Also we'll take you through the different countries and then in the end we will have a short summary and a possibility for you to ask some questions. We start with our position in the Nordic market and we are still a growing company, close to 14,000 employees all over the Nordic and delivering service to a lot of different types of customers. 85% of our net sales comes from projects, orders, services below 50 million. We are the leading Nordic provider of sustainable technical solutions for buildings in many different segments. Electrical, heating and plumbing, ventilation are the biggest segments within our business, but we also have cooling, critical power, security, sprinkler, technical FM, energy management, building automation, solar panel, etc. So all the systems you need in a building is something we can provide to our customers. On a rolling 12-month basis, we have sales above 29 million today. And a lot of and many very, very loyal customers that we are working with every day. So this is the history of Bravida, and we have seen great development the last eight years, nine years, 9% CAGR on the sales side, 10% CAGR on the earnings, and then the cash conversion, two weeks for the moment, but on average the last year we are very close to the 100%, which is our target as well. Very stable development both on sales as well as earnings profitability and for the moment a cash flow that is weaker than we want it to be. So we are the leading Nordic provider of sustainable technical solution as we say. All customers, every customers have the access to the entire offering within Bravida and that is a big potential for us as well to sell more to already happy and existing customers. We are moving to a more focused way of looking at the life cycle perspective of every building and we are the industry leader in sustainability, come back to that later as well. And this is something we try to improve of course but also a trend in the market and customers due to the CSRD taxonomy etc. looking at the life cycle, energy consumption, the Green Deal, etc. is something that will be supportive for our business and the whole market going forward. In the bottom to the left, you see also that we're working with EV chargers for cars. We are working with solar panels when we think it's a good idea and the competition allows us to do that. And then, of course, a segment that we thought, I thought, should be a bigger demand in, and that is the energy saving industry. The demand in that sector is surprisingly low for the moment and maybe that is because uncertainty of higher interests etc. But I guess when the energy prices goes up again during the winter the demand for this service will increase again. So, the third quarter in numbers. First, the market outlook. And of course, there are some uncertainties in the market. We see some increased price pressure due to low demand in some segments. We see increasing interest rates and inflation leads to delays in decisions regarding investments going forward. And that leads to margin pressure in the whole industry, as well as for Brevides. We have been telling you all the last quarters that we are expecting somewhat lower margin. Said that, I think still we have very stable earnings in the company, in the industry. We are presenting an EBITDA that is in line with last year. On the other side, when I say that there is uncertainty in the demand, we still see a relatively good demand for service and in some segments, especially the industry segments, I would say, and infrastructure projects. So we have a mixed demand. Residentials definitely down and today it's actually only 7% of our sales. But on the other hand we see a very big demand for our services on the industry side as well as the infrastructure side. The highlighting number, we are growing 8%. We have a stable order backlog. The order intake is growing 11% and we are presenting stable earnings. Margin is down to 5.4%. We are growing in both service and installation. We have slightly increased accident number and the cash flow is weak. Even if we have a seasonality in this, this quarter is weak in the last quarter. Growing organically 3%. We have said when we presented the second quarter that we expect the organic growth to be lower going forward, and we will probably see that flatten out in the coming quarter as well. But all in all, 8% growth, stable and high, order backlog, order intake increasing both in service and installation, and we have a stable earning. On Group, this means that net sales increased to 6.5 billion from roughly 6 billion. We have an order intake that are increasing from 5.9 to almost the same as the sales in the quarter, 6.5 billion. And the order backlog are at 6.5 billion compared to 17.9 billion. Third quarter, we also won two contracts to Stockholm City, the underground, the new underground line, and that means it was signed after Q3, and that means that we can add another 1.3 billion on top of that. So if we take that into account, we have the same order backlog this year compared to last year. The beta in the quarter is 352 million compared to 357 and year to date we are at 1.1 billion roughly compared to 1 billion. So we have increased our earnings the first nine months and we have again a stable order backlog and an increasing order intake. Net sales in numbers, organic growth is contributing with 200 million approximately, M&A 111 million, and then we have currency effect at 170 million, taking us from 6 billion 97 million to 6 billion 581 billion. Growth in both service and installation. We have organic growth in Sweden, Norway and Finland. And I guess that Åsa will comment on Denmark later. We are happy to see that organic growth is coming down in Denmark to be able to consolidate the Danish business. FX effect is 3%. The EBITDA, 352 compared to 357, and we have a lower margin, 5.4 instead of 5.9. It is unchanged in Norway, but lower in the other countries. And the margin is mainly affected by, of course, high inflation and a too high growth rate that we have been communicating earlier, and that is still the case. And we have really not been able to pass on all cost increases to customers in the quarter. But on top of that we also have some investments that we're doing to become an even better company and non-recurring costs for implementing new digital systems and IT systems is 25 million in the quarter compared to 14 last year and year to date it's 81. Forecast for the full year 2023 is as early communicated 125 million. Then we have some EBITDA impact on coming from new development in new business areas like sustainability and a modern IT platform according to our plan. And driving the business plan forward increases administrative expenses, but will enable improved margin and growth going forward. The increased recurring cost to the left is the IT platform, as I just mentioned, digital development capabilities, but also increased sustainability focus and improved HR support. Then we have the initial cost for investments in new business. We have the technical facility management that is going according to plan. Automation, we can see today that we have profitable growth. And then energy management, as I said a couple of minutes ago, that still low demand for larger investments in energy efficiency. Surprisingly low demand, if you ask me. But I also think that is something that will develop and grow. come going forward because energy is one of the drivers in our industry to make sure that we in our industry as well in the society reach and can handle the the transformation and meet the things we need to do to make sure that the temperature is not increasing more than one and a half degree Non-recurring costs in new digital systems is procurement system, which will give us benefits to suppliers, increase our competitiveness, but also give us a competitive edge regarding sustainability reports due to our competitors in a year from now. project management system, CRM system, and then we have systems to handle the technical facility management business as well. Order intake and the backlog, as you can see, it's very stable, has been for a while. We have some seasonality in different quarters. We think overall that we have very solid and strong order backlog on a good level. Happy to see that the order intake is increasing with 11% year on year and we have growth in all countries. Some is coming from service and some is coming from installation. And again, the new project in Stockholm is not in these numbers. Sustainability, LTIFR on group level is up 3%. We have a very good improvement in Finland and Norway, but slightly higher in Denmark. Norway is well below our group target at five and a half. Then I said earlier that we are the industry leader in sustainability. One way of showing that is that we today have 23% of all our cars in our car fleet is 100% electrical. And that is close to twice as many as we had in the beginning of this year. So the transformation is going quite quick internally. And that is something I think we can benefit from the coming years going forward. And that is something that will continue as well. We can see that the changes in CO2 emissions from vehicles in relation to net sales LTM has therefore improved and gone from 0.93 ton to 0.79 ton per million circa in sales. And that is an improvement with 15%, which is good and something we want to see and is well in line with our ambition going forward. Acquisitions, we have used our balance sheet in the quarter as well. 12 acquisitions so far this year. In the quarter, we have signed three deals adding 740 million in annual sales. We see a continued strong pipeline and we still see acquisition at attractive multiples. So, and as you know, we have been signed another deal in Norway in the fourth quarter, Tune Svet Group in Norway. It's adding 600 million in sales. It is the market leader within electrical installation and service in the Western Norway, Vestland, as it's called. Had losses in 21 to 23 due to write-downs in some completed projects. So turnaround will be made through reorganization, synergies implemented in Bravida way and increased focus on service. And we expect to reach zero EBITDA margin in year one, 2% margin in year two and 5% margin in year three. And just to do the comparison with ORA's case in 2017, this is pretty much the same type of deal. That time we had 1.1 billion in sales and the business today has been growing 25% to approximately 1.4 billion. We took it down in the first couple of years and today we have a beta margin at approximately 5% in that business. That is an excellent way to create value for you as shareholders. And that is of course something we are planning to do with Tunestvet as well. So by that I hand over to Åsa who will take you through the performance in the different countries.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Mattias. And as usual, then let's start with Sweden, where we are happy to say that we are growing sales with 7%. So top line is at 3.1. And the growth is both organic 5% and from acquisitions 2%. And we're growing in installation here. We have a EBITDA of 208 compared to 199. and that gives us a stable EBITDA margin of 6.8%. Order intake is plus 2% coming from installation, order backlog minus 9%. We also got three larger orders in this quarter amounting to around 300 million. And that is one hospital. It's a multidiscipline contract in the Stockholm area. There is one we're installing a security system for prison and probation services. And then there is a wastewater treatment plant, which is also a multidiscipline order. And as Mattias said in Q4, we also got an order regarding installations in the extended subway system, or it's actually two contracts in Stockholm. So Sweden continued to look stable and also growing in the quarter. Then moving to Norway. which has a more or less flat sales if you look in Swedish kronor, but there is a growth in local currency, so a 2% organic growth and 1% from acquisitions. And the growth in Norway is from services, which we are very happy with. Also stable margin, 5.2%. Order intake, plus 22% and this is coming both from services and installation and order backlog is negative minus 22. Denmark then has a growth in sales but this growth is coming from from FX translation so there is a negative growth if you look at local currency, and we are happy with that. We plan to take down the volume in Denmark, focusing on margin and cash flow improvement. So EBITDA margin declined. EBITDA was 58 compared to 70, and the EBITDA margin declined to 3.5%. We have some challenges in some projects. We have had some write-downs in the quarter, and there is also... write-downs in one of the acquisitions that we did earlier, that we are now restructuring and taking actions on. We have a high focus on margin and on cash flow in Denmark. Denmark is the main reason why the cash flow is lower than we would like it to be. Order intake is plus 23, but in local currency it is 2%. Order backlog is plus 1% year on year. Finland has a growth in sales of 32%. It's coming both from organic growth, 12%, and from acquisitions, 8%. FX margin also has a 12% impact. And here we're growing in both service and installation. EBITDA margin declined to 2.5%. This is also the trend that we see in a couple of quarters. It's isolated to a few right now, and there is mainly one school project that we're having some problems with that is ending now in the next couple of months. So that will be improving. Order intake here is plus 4%, negative in local currency, and we have an order backlog of plus 23% year on year. If we then look at the net debt and cash flow, if you look at the left-hand side, you can see the financial position that we have now, and then we have a cash balance of $600. 72 million. We have loans, financing of 2.4 billion. And then we had the leasing according to IFRS 16. So our cars basically at 1.3 million. That adds up to net debt of 3 billion. And with the LTM EBITDA of 2.3, that gives us a net EBITDA ratio of 1.3. And as you can see on the right hand side, you can see the financing that we have right now. And we are right in the middle of refinancing the RCF that is expiring next year in October. So we are planning to sign a new RCF in the coming months. also you can say cns matthias said the cash conversion is at 57 and that is of course due to the weak and negative cash flow that we have now in the quarter and that we are not happy with so this is now our highest priority to turn this and the reason for this lower cash flow is Well, there are different reasons, but one is that we've had, you know, the prepayments that we have had before in some of the larger projects, they have been ending the projects. And if you take the Stockholm bypass, for example, we got a large prepayment a couple of years ago. Now we're starting working on it. And now we are in this quarter and the next, we were working on a negative cash. in that project. So that's one reason. And also this tougher market that we are in now with the margin pressure that we have and some of the brightness that we had that is, of course, impacting the the cash flow as well. And that also leads to the willingness for customers to pay is a bit less now, where you can say it takes longer for the money to get into our pockets. There are more discussions back and forth before we send invoices, and then there are some discussions, and then it takes longer time before we get the money in. In Denmark, we have a couple of disputes with some public customers. And there is a hospital also in Norway where we are disputing. That is also tying up capital right now. In Norway, though, we have partly sold that, so money is coming in the next quarter. And we believe that the rest will be sold in a pretty short time period. Saying that, we don't think this will have a negative impact on our EBITDA, or on our EBITDA margin, since we have a pretty conservative revenue recognitions and provisions for these possible losses. But we believe that it will take some time, we will get the money into our bank accounts. But this has highest priority, and we are working with action plans in all countries and targeting especially Denmark on this. So the financial targets. We have a financial target, as you know, an EBITDA margin of more than 7%. We are right now at 6.1%. Cash conversion, as we talked about, is 57% on average. As Mattias said, looking at a couple of years average, we are almost on 100%. Net EBITDA ratio is 1.3, and we have a sales growth of 16%, and we did pay out more than 50% dividend last time. Well, Mattias, with that, you want to close? Yes, thank you, Åsa.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

Just a short summary. And again, increase of the top line of net sales, 8%. We have 3% organic growth. We are growing organically in all countries except Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. We have 2% growth from acquisitions and the margin is affected by inflation and too high growth leading to a lower productivity. And we have not really been able to pass all the cost increases due to the high inflation to customers in this quarter. EBITDA margin is also affected by increased costs for some development within the business, but those are according to plan. Negative cash flow explained by, as Åsa said just a minute ago, increasing account receivables due to strong growth and slower payments from customers and fewer new large projects with payment in advance.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

overall close to 100 cash conversion on average the last years so by that i think we can open up for some interesting questions 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, Nordea

Good morning. It's Carl here from Nordea. A few questions. Firstly, starting at working capital, you said that the weak development is partly due to disputes. Could you give any flavor of how many disputes there are currently which is impacting these? And also, if you could... specify the amount from these projects as well as the effects from the prepayments from the Stockholm bypass project and also that if you could also shed some light on what counterparties you have in this project and if you I guess if you have any bankruptcy risks etc why they're not they're paying

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

Shall I start and then you can fill in with the facts? No, I think the bankruptcy risks are low, close to nothing in those projects where Åsa refers to. I think, of course, we have some risk regarding bankruptcy in the business, but that is more normal conditions and that hasn't increased the last quarter. It's mainly public customers. So they can pay, but they are not willing to pay. And I just can say in Denmark, for example, it's very frustrating to have a system that is not working. We have one dispute in Norway, for example, where it's a quicker system, a system that works part of that dispute is solved and we actually had in that part we have 100 right i would say so we got those money and they're coming in in the fourth quarter in denmark we really have a system that is not working in the contract it is decided how to handle disputes and it's just uh prolonged late handling of these disputes for example in one of the projects it's coming up in 2025 or something so it's very frustrating from our side as well but yeah i

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

These are public customers, as you say, in Denmark. We're not taking large contracts for public customers in Denmark any longer if we don't have very good terms in the contract. The main part is the country's receivables. Except for these two larger disputes that we talked about earlier, there are smaller ones in Denmark. It's a lot more discussions back and forth before we get the money. And in the other countries, we don't have any big issues, except for this we talked about in Norway, but that we will solve. But in the other countries, it is just in general a longer time before we get the money into our accounts. So we are now working really hard.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst, Nordea

people centrally and on division level calling the the branch managers calling customers making sure that we are doing everything we can to get the money in in our accounts okay but it sounds good that it's public counterparties at least uh how do you handle it the pockwise in in this contract so we should we should we expect the rightness coming here in in the coming quarters it If I heard you correctly, you didn't expect that. Of course, on a group level, the POC seems pretty okay. But maybe on a contract level or a division level, it might be a different picture.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

I mean, we have, I think, so there are different ways of handling this. In some of the contracts, we have a very low revenue recognition already. So you will not see, and we don't believe that you will see any losses. In some other contracts, there might be write-downs, but then we have provisions for that. that we will resolve.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst, Nordea

On an aggregated level, what will that end up with? On an aggregated level, what will that result in, if you're talking division or maybe on the group level?

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

We don't see that it will have a big impact on the margin.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

If you ask about the margin, Carl, I think it's more about we see continued pressure on the margin, as we have said before. But I'm very confident and we are very confident that we will be able to continue to present stable earnings. But of course, we are in a very tricky market condition. We have some segments going down and then in some other segments, it is a really strong demand. So it's... But all in all, we stay with a quotation from the last quarter that we will have a pressure on the margin going forward. And I think that is another way to answer your question. It's not only related or correlated to the project you're talking about now. It's more cities in the industry.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think these projects will cover pretty well. But then, as you say, the general pressure on the margin will take down the margin a bit.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst, Nordea

Okay, and in Finland and Denmark we saw margin pressure in the quarter, Finland obviously stood out here, one big project. What portion of the margin drop in Finland is related to the school project? And also coming back to, I mean if you're finalizing it in Q4 as you said, I mean how is also here the POC looking? Will it get worse once it's close to be finalized? Following it will get better in Q1, Q2 when it's out of the books. And also in Denmark is it across the board? a tough margin in many contracts or is it related to just a few that was also about to be finalized?

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

I think in Finland first of all I think Finland has the trickiest market of all countries I think it's not the school has impacted now short term but I think the most important question is about the Finnish overall market going forward which it might I expect that to be a bit tricky because the demand is probably the toughest in Finland compared to the other countries. In Denmark, we have a lot of very profitable business in Denmark. So as I said, we are consolidating, taking down the volumes in Denmark and focusing on cash generative projects and services going forward. And that's what we're trying to do. We have fantastic business in Denmark as well.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst, Nordea

Okay, that sounds fair. Looking at this service versus installation mix, installation continues to obviously gain share here. To what extent is that impacting the margin mix in the quarter? And also looking at the order intake, you said, I mean, it's growing by double digits here in the quarter. What portion of that growth comes from service, meaning that the mix at some point might change to the positive?

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

If you look at service during the year, the margin has improved. That should have a positive impact. It has improved in all countries except for Denmark, so there it has a negative impact. But in general, the service margin is improving, which is positive for the business. What was your last question?

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst, Nordea

I mean, in terms of order intake, historically, services have been more profitable than installation. In a market where you gain shares of sales in installation, you should have a negative margin mix on the group level. But if you look at the order intake, which is double-digit, you said that service is performing very well. So if you look at the order intake, are services gaining shares over installation, meaning that you have a higher growth in services than installation, if you look at order intake?

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Not really. Actually, service has decreased a bit compared to last quarter.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst, Nordea

Year-over-year versus what declined in Q2?

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Compared to last year. Ooh, was that down or up?

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

I don't remember those numbers, but I think it's pretty overweight in the 11% order intake to installation, but not a very big difference. I think that is how I remember it.

speaker
Carl Ragnestam
Analyst, Nordea

But you said that you had a good demand in service and it's declining. It's still.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

But if you look at the service, I think Q3 is the weakest quarter during the year together with Q1. The strongest service quarters are Q4 and Q3. So you have a seasonality as well in that.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

If you look at the order intake and service, that is the turnover during the quarter. So the turnover was a bit slower than the quarter before.

speaker
Johan Skoglund
Analyst, DNB Markets

Okay, very clear. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

The next question comes from Carl Noren from SEB. Please go ahead.

speaker
Carl Noren
Analyst, SEB

Hello and good morning. Start off with another question on the cash flow. I was wondering if you can give any kind of guidance when we should expect the working capital trend or the trend. The working capital is increasing as a percentage of sales when that trend is expected to revert. And also if you could give any guidance on what your working capital to sales should be in, let's say, one year from here would be helpful. Thanks.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

First, good morning, Carl. I don't think we usually give guidance on that, but maybe we can give some more flavor also.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

No, but we want it to be negative to begin with. And we believe that it will be a tough quarter next year. Not next year, next quarter as well. So the next two quarters, I think, will be still tough.

speaker
Carl Noren
Analyst, SEB

Okay, and then improving in the second half of next year. We are working for it. Yeah. And then there's one question regarding the Norwegian acquisition there. Just to be clear, did you say that you expected to make a 0% beta model? Is that for 2024?

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

We are saying the first year, so it depends when we are able to close it. Now, very recently, we got an okay from the competition authority, so the first 12 months.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, so closing is beginning of December. But that's pretty much the same. Yeah, so it will be 24.

speaker
Carl Noren
Analyst, SEB

Okay, yeah, that's good. And then I just have a question on the margin as well, because I think it's quite interesting. You say that you have pressure from inflation, et cetera, impacting your margins, but you still have a very good margin or a flattish margin in Sweden and Norway. And it looks more to me that there are some projects where you have some issues in Denmark and Finland. Can you maybe comment a bit on how we should read that? Because it seems like in Sweden, et cetera, you're handling inflation quite well. Or is that due to expectations maybe hit even more going forward?

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

I think you answered the question yourself. I think we have handled it better in Sweden and Norway due to different reasons, I think. In Norway, we have a history, the whole industry have a history of having more index clauses in the contract. So I think we have been supported and helped by that. But in Sweden, I think we have been more successful in actually doing exactly what you said, transport and be more proactive in working with the pricing in a better way than we have been for now in Denmark and Finland.

speaker
Carl Noren
Analyst, SEB

I think that's the answer. And then a question on pricing for next year. I think it's a pretty big topic.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

I think also there can be some differences in timing in each country as well. But all in all, Sweden is our best segment. And there are reasons for that, followed by Norway. And there are reasons for that as well. So good businessmanship handles a trickier environment in a better way.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

I think also that in Sweden we have some areas where we have been able to keep a high margin so that can actually compensate for some areas that we have more problems with. So margin will be more stable.

speaker
Carl Noren
Analyst, SEB

Okay. I think it's on the pricing and price impact. Can you give any kind of comment on how much pricing helped you in Q3? And maybe some forward-looking comments on the pricing, because we're hearing from a lot of companies that you know, pricing competition gets quite tough here. And just your view on that would be interesting to hear.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

No, but I think first you started your question with saying that you think our margin is very stable, even if we're losing some margin. And I think that is what you can expect from Bravida. We are delivering stable earnings. Said that, I think we still see a decreased margin and it would probably be some tough quarters coming as well. probably a bit lower margin in those quarters but we have some demand in some segments in the market where we are seeing quite good margins as well as we see some segments where the price pressure is bigger or tougher what to say and that these segments that we are not focusing a lot on and we try to avoid we have some sweet spots that bravida is For example, the sub in Stockholm, the competition is slightly different. A project where we can price our competences and risk in a different way compared to, for example, residential, which is not very high on our agenda. A clear trend shift in those segments as well is that we actually have won some residential projects because Bravida is a very stable financial partner. Customers, the few projects that start, choose to buy from stable financial suppliers, and we are one of those. So we have for the... first time in many years actually seen that we got a higher price compared to some other in the market just because we are bravida and that is of course a good sign as well but the margin will have some pressure going forward as well and in some segments they are better than us yes that's very clear thank you

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

The next question comes from Johan Skoglund from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.

speaker
Johan Skoglund
Analyst, DNB Markets

So, good morning. We were talking about the disputes in Denmark and Norway, but I'm curious about the willingness for customers to pay being lower in general. In general, what is being discussed? Would this be payment terms, price renegotiations, work that has been carried out, milestone timing, etc.? So, I would appreciate some additional color on this and how it has changed.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

I think a qualified guess from my side is that for many years the interest rates have been very low. The cost of capital has been low or nothing. And I think our local organizations in some cases have been a bit surprised when they have seen that the other side of the contract have been better in negotiating the payment terms. when we have been so successful earlier. Now it is actually a negotiation. Three years ago, no one really, to express it maybe too strong, but no one really wanted to have the cash. We wanted to have them, and we were successful in those payment plans negotiations. Today it is a bigger struggle to get front-loaded payment plans, and then later on in the project as well it's a bit tougher to get extra works approved etc and get those payments as well. So I think it has shaped up all over the line regarding the payments. If we see customers that are not able to pay a bit increased in Q3 compared to earlier, but not a very big difference, I would say. That happens every year. So I think it's just everyone is focusing more on the cash today and also the price levels, etc. So I think that is a big change and that is something we need to handle, of course. Do you want to add something also?

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

No, I just want to maybe add on that. We see that because we call customers and we call the branches and ask why this wasn't paid and so on. And then the invoice has to be crystal clear. It has to be exactly verifying what they are paying for. And if it's not, and maybe that wasn't so as necessary you know a couple of years ago but now it's really you know customers sending back you know invoices there's we need to credit it we need to send another invoice there has to be a documentation in another way so it's it's tougher so we we we learn as well we need to adjust to adjust yes

speaker
Johan Skoglund
Analyst, DNB Markets

Okay, thank you. And are there any specific end markets or customer groups that are more prone to be negotiating or do you see this all across the board?

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, the public customers in Denmark.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, but apart from that, I think it's more general.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, and again, the Danish situation is, as I said, very frustrating. You get frustrated because you have a public customer who is loaning money from Danish companies to build the society and that is not how it works in Finland, Sweden and Norway. And they are not taking responsibility for, as we see it, their mistakes. Projects that are many, many years late and they are not paying because of we don't understand and probably it is because they are a public customer. So they need some kind of court decision to dare to pay out those money. It's easier sometimes for a public customer to pay out money when someone else have decided them and forced them to do it. So I think that is the reason behind it. But I think it's we are not a bank. We should not be the one who is lending money to the public customers in Denmark. That's my view. And that is something we struggle a lot to handle, of course.

speaker
Johan Skoglund
Analyst, DNB Markets

OK, understood. Good luck with that. And thank you so much for the detailed answers and good luck with Q4.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

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

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

Okay, thank you all for interesting questions. And I think we say thank you for you who have listened in. And then Åsa and myself going back to work some on the cash flow, aren't we?

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Exactly. We're going to roll up our sleeves even more and do that.

speaker
Mattias Johansson
Chief Executive Officer

But overall, stable earnings. And I think we stop the presentation with that. Thank you so much for listening. Bye-bye.

speaker
Åsa
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you. Have a good day.

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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