CombinedX AB (publ)

Hej och välkomna till dagens sändning med Combinext. Det är med oss vd Jörgen Quist, min kollega, som kommer att presentera Q2-rapporten för 2025. Är det så att ni ringer in och önskar ställa frågor, trycker ni stjärna 9, sträcker upp handen och stjärna 6 för att få slå på lite ljud när du får ordet. Om ni vill skriva skriftliga frågor, samla formulärer till höger om sändningen så tar vi upp det efter. Och med det slår vi ordet till dig Jörgen, varsågod!

Tack ska du ha och välkomna allihop till vår presentation av det andra kvartalet 2025. Jag börjar direkt med kvartalets höjdpunkt. Det heter Align Consulting. Align Consulting blev en del av CombinedX den 19 maj. And if we tell you briefly about Align, it was founded in 2012 in Oslo. In 2022, it was established in a company in Sweden that is clearly growing. And today we have 40 consultants and 10 sub-consultants, in total about 50 people who work in this group Align. It is completely specialized in the business system IFS, where you have a very strong renommee. Vi har jobbat lite tillsammans nu med Align och vi är väldigt glada över det och det är ett stort tillskott till vår grupp. Så varmt välkomna Aligners! With Align, Powerhouse and Platform Services, which we call our platform house, are clearly emerging. Our group today consists of Elvenite, which works with the business system, Infor, Apps from the Tool, which works with the Dynamics platform, Netgin, with the ServiceNow platform, and Align with the EFS platform, and competes with Nintec, Digital Experience, and NetHouse on the infrastructure side. Vi tycker att Align med IFS passar väldigt bra in den här tillväxtstrategin. Därför att IFS jobbar just med stora, köpstarka kunder. Det är ett system som både har bredd och djup. Vi har starka kunder som jobbar långt in i kundens digitalisering med den här plattformen. Det gör att vi har lång eftermarknad. Det skapar också en bra till arbetsmarknad för våra konsulter. So, aligned, perfect in our strategy, and warmly welcome. We are not as happy with the profitability in the second quarter. The adjusted bit of margin was up to 7.6%, for some something better than a year ago, but still far from our goal of having 12% adjusted bit of margin. And here you can see that we look at some figures. We usually present our figures from a slightly longer perspective. Here we see the result development since 2021. And then we see that we have an adjusted result of 17.9 million in Bita, which we have adjusted to 2 million for global costs. This gives a marginal Q2 of 7.6% and LPM, less well math, of 8.7%. This is even more obvious when we look at the last 12 months. We were up to 12% LPM in 2023 and we were also there in the beginning of 2022. So we have been there and we will come back there. But now we have dropped to about 8-9% LPM. This is related to our income development. We see that we have organically a negative growth in the second quarter with 7.5%. It is difficult to reverse the result with this negative organic growth. Vi sitter ju ändå med en kostnadskostym i våra bolag som inte låter sig anpassas riktigt lika fort så som marknadsefterfrågan för oss i varje fall har minskat under den här tiden och också antalet konsulter. Because it is the number of consultants that drives the lower income. We went into Q2, I described this in our Q1 report, so I hope it will not come as a surprise. We went into Q2 with 528 employees compared to 606 that we had before, so it was a pretty clear decrease. Now with Q2 we go out Q2 with 559 employees, then a 40-year-old came in with Align Consulting, so we've had a little negative net recruitment even under Q2. And it's connected to the conjecture that we see, yes, it has not turned, but it goes sideways. What do we do to increase the results? Strategically, we want to focus our resources on the share market with good offers, where there is a demand for specialist competence and a high willingness to pay. This is what we are doing now with the acquisition of Align. But we also do that through all the integrations that we have done in Alvinite and MTCS have gone together under the brand Alvinite. And the acquisition of MTCS, our acquisition where we have, goes in strongly in our role on the InforMT side, where there is a good willingness to pay, a good market. Appsfront and Redway have gone together during 2024. We see a little bit of the effects of that now, 2025. Even in Togo and Netgear, there have been historical acquisitions that we have integrated into Ninetech. This goes together with Aspire. We have imported Aspire into Ninetech and NetHouse has been integrated into AnyTrust.Y in 2024. Så det vi försöker skapa är relativt större pjäser, kostnadseffektiva, med en stark marknadskraft och med en bra, tydlig position på marknaden. What we may not have succeeded with, if we look at our costs, is to really develop the synergies of these integrations. We have not really managed to get there, so we see that our external costs, we do not really see that they decrease in the rate that we hope. We also see that our staff costs in the second quarter are relatively high. And that is unqualified personnel in different forms that we have, and that we may not have managed to take down in the same pace as the demand has decreased. Att vi har en marknadskraft, att vi har power på marknaden, visar också, i de här integrationerna, det ser vi däremot tydligt, tycker jag. Exempelvis nu är det Elvenight och MTLC som har gått tillsammans, Swedish Match, affären som vi presenterade under kvartalet, där man då får förtroendet från Elvenight-sidan att uppgradera Swedish Match Industries on-prem-lösning jämt till en cloud-lösning. If we look at the cash flow in the second quarter, it is with the large investments that we make in Align, with 67 million investment companies that are decreasing, we of course go out of Q2 with a slightly smaller cash than we usually do, but with a higher net worth. But all in all, we have a significant security in our liquid media. We have 75.2 million liquid media at the expense of Q2. And in addition, we have an unused credit of 30 million. So there we feel safe. The net debt has increased now with the acquisition of Align to about one times the EBITDA if we count the IFRS debt, which is about half of this net debt. And here I also want to let in our CFO, Anna. In the report that we released now at 12 o'clock, a small minus sign has been smuggled in at the wrong place. Do you just want to comment on that, Anna, so that we can figure it out?

Yes, exactly. It's very unfortunate. But a minus sign has come in when we talk about net debt on page 7, the first column. stycket näst längst ner, där står det minus 49,3, men det ska vara plus 49,3 miljoner, vilket alltså är nettoskulden exklusiv i IFRS. Så att tyvärr, vi kommer lägga upp en ny rapport på hemsidan som korrigerar det där lilla minustecknet. Så att, det är en ren typo.

Yes, that can happen. But these figures that we see here, they are correct. The net debt total is up to 108.5 million. Our IFRS 16 is 59.3 million in that amount. Okay. With that in mind, I think that, yes, we have a strong financial position in the cash register, which means that we continue to fight to become the leading group of specialist companies in digitalization. With that, I'm going to open up for questions.

Thank you so much, Jörgen, for that presentation. And then we open up for questions. And how did it turn out from April to June? Did you see an improvement or decrease in media time there?

If we think about the conjucture situation, we think that the market has moved sideways for about a year now. There is always a sign of a little plus and a little minus. They take each other out, I would say. I have not changed my point of view after Q2 as I have done before. We are quite sideways, I would say.

Thank you for that answer. Can you comment on how your M&A pipeline looks like, as well as have the multiples gone down? And if so, how much then?

We always have a pipeline on M&A. We are always in dialogue with a number of companies. Now, during this quarter, Q2 has of course focused on reaching a goal with the line. Vi har en upparbetad pipeline med förvärvsdialoger. De ska passa in i det här plattformshuset som vi bygger. Vi tycker att vi har en del spännande saker att titta på där. Vi har målet att göra 2-3 förvärv per år. Går allting väl så kanske vi klarar av ytterligare ett förvärv under året. Det ligger i vår förhoppning. The multiples, I'm not going to say that they are very good. There is a pretty clear picture of expectations on the market, both on the buy and sell side. Det är andra saker som gör om ett förvärv går i mål eller inte. Det finns perioder då multiplarna sticker iväg uppåt. Exempelvis när börsen drar iväg. Men annars så tycker jag att det där är ganska stabilt.

Tack för det svaret. And what do you expect in terms of net recruitment during the second half of the year? Do you need to reduce it one more or what do you think about it?

It is often the case that Q3 is a quarter where we have a net recruitment. We have a trainee program this year as well, which we have had very many talented applicants for and we have chosen a number of trainees. With that said, I would guess that Q3 will come out a little positive on the network recruitment side. It's a little early to say, but that's my feeling right now.

And has the market further weakened since Q1?

The market has not worsened since Q1.

What are the opportunities to reduce fixed and semi-fixed costs without affecting and preventing growth too negatively?

All the integration streams that we have run. så kan det hända att vi kanske skulle behövt titta ännu lite mer på synergier. Jag nämnde lokaler. Det är nåt som vi kommer att se över under hösten. Vi har relativt många olika kontorslokaler ibland i samma städer. Det är nåt som vi kommer att få en diskussion om i gruppen under hösten. Jag hoppas och tror att det finns exempel på kostnader som vi kan hitta i den orienterade kultur. Först och främst så vill vi öka beläggningen och öka försäljningen. Det är våra prioriteringar. Sen gäller det också att vi balanserar våra kostnader. Vi är ett tillväxtorienterat företag och vi tror mycket på våra bolag och vi vill fortsätta växa dem.

Tack för det. Då tar vi en avslutande fråga här då. Både intäkt och kostnad per anställd ökar year on year. Beror det främst på Align eller har de som lämnat främst varit konsulter med lägre intjäning? Eller vad har du för kommentarer på det? Självklart. Både intäkt och kostnad per anställd ökar year on year. Beror det främst på Align Eller har de som lämnat främst varit konsulter med en lägre intjäning?

Ja, då kanske du refererar till den här bilden. Här ser vi ganska tydligt hur intäkten på RFC har ökat. Den har gjort det stabilt under lång tid och det är ju en del av vår strategi att vi ska to have specialized companies. There is a good willingness to pay for our consultants. It is more of course also a salary boost in terms of succeeding in this specialization. What makes this cost increase is the total number of FDs. It is also about what is the rate of return and what is the proportion of O&H. All of this is also included in those figures. Generellt då så de strategiska åtgärder vi har gjort i form av förvärvet av NTCs kom in med relativt höga timpriser. Align absolut har kommit in nu med höga timpriser. Så vi flyttar oss uppåt i den här från så att säga med relativt låga timpriser till marknader där betalsviljan är högre.

Good. That was all the questions we had here, Jörgen. I would like to thank you for today's presentation and for answering all of our questions. I wish you a pleasant summer. Thank you very much.