Investor AB (publ)

Q2 presentation. Investors CEO, Johan Puschel, and our CFO, Helena Saxon, will start out presenting and go through the results. And then we will have a Q&A session. Welcome, everyone.

Okay. Johan here. Welcome, everybody, to this call. Also from my side. If I don't start on the first page or page number two in the deck... As we all know, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on people and society, and governments and companies have in many ways tried to handle the situation, and it has for sure been a balancing act. For governments balancing the need to contain the virus with the need to keep the economy going, not to create social unrest as a consequence of lockdowns, and, of course, the increase in unemployment. Companies have, on the other hand, had the top priority to safeguard their employees and also support the customers through these difficult times. The customers are, in fact, the ones that will be key for them after this crisis. But for many companies, there has also been a need to increase the focus on cost, cash flow, and liquidity. If we look on the more economic development, we have seen a rebound in leading indicators and economic activity, and June was for sure a stronger month than in the beginning of the quarter. Still difficult to read how much, of course, is catch-up inventory corrections, et cetera, in some cases, and we should also see that what we actually see that the COVID-19 development in the U.S. is developing in some states in the wrong direction, for example, in Florida, Texas, and Arizona, but especially in California, given the size of that state. In addition, we are also seeing the spread in big areas such as Brazil and India. So while we have seen an improvement gradually during the quarter, and hopefully, that could continue. There is still a big uncertainty when it comes to the sustainability and the strengths of the overall recovery. In this environment, in this exceptional quarter with significant sales drop for many of our companies, I must say that I am impressed by our management team's decisiveness and speed in taking actions to adapt. With that introduction, let's go over to page number three and the performance, the figures. The total charity return was up 9% in the quarter compared to the Swedish stock market, plus 17%. Our net asset value was up 14% in the quarter, and that was mainly driven by a strong value increase in the listed companies and in EQT. As you can see, the listed companies were up 19% in the quarter, and EQT was up 16% in the quarter. Actually, in constant exchange rates, also EQT was up 19% in the quarter. Patricia was down 2% in value in the quarter. If we adjust for currencies, it was plus 2%. but I will talk more about the operation and development later on. Starting with the listed companies, a few highlights in the quarter. We invested 0.5 billion in ABD, taking our year-to-date investments to more than 2 billion. And as you know, right after the end of the quarter, ABD finalized the sale of power grids, and this will, of course, lead to the fact that they now can focus on the core remaining businesses, and also it will lead to significant share buybacks. Atlas Coco closed the strategic import and acquisition of Israel Vision, which is a 10-plus billion acquisition, and so we entered another licensing agreement relating to a novel treatment within GAUT, And this is continuous work for the company, and they have been very successful, I think, in broadening its product portfolio. Moving then over to Patricia and slide number seven. As expected, following a strong first quarter, COVID-19 had a more negative impact in the second quarter that was challenging for some of the companies. For these companies, in aggregate, as you can see, the organic sales declined by 19%, while operating profits fell by 25%. In total, if we also include our 40% ownership in 3 Scandinavia, EBITDA was down 18%. And as I said initially, I think this is an impressive performance, with sales being down almost 20%, being able to preserve performance 75-80% of the profit is really a testimony of great resilience and agility. And especially, I think, considering that we, for all these nine companies, we don't report any EU costs at all. So it's really all cost in, and that is not the case for all companies. Moving down to the next page, page number eight. This is how we presented it in connection with our first quarterly report. We said that we believe that three companies were more resilient looking forward than the other four companies. And now when we have the second quarter, I think we can say that this guidance was quite well calibrated. If we start with the companies on page nine, that we think would be more resilient. resilient in the second quarter, you can see that the organic growth and the margins have been quite stable despite the very turbulent environment that we have had in the quarter. So the resilient performance we saw in the second quarter with stable sales and margins. For all these three companies, the organic growth was positive in June. And we actually expect a good performance for these three companies in the third quarter. When it comes to Menlycke, we have highlighted that due to the customer agreements with impersonal protective equipment, we expect significant sales addition for the remaining part of the year. And this means that for Menlycke Group, we expect a strong sales growth in the third quarter. It should be mentioned that the margins on the PPE is below the average of the group. As you know, wound care has higher margins than the surgical business. So then moving to the next page and talking about PIAF, Paramedil, Laboree, and vulnerability. For these companies, in line with our expectation, the second quarter was more challenging due to COVID-19. and that led to a significant decrease in elective procedures, lockdowns, and related reduced customer demand. Despite the sharp revenue drops, margins held up due to successful work in adapting and taking out costs. For these companies, June was better than in the beginning of the quarter, but June was still negative in terms of organic growth compared to last year. And for these companies that represent about 30% of the total portfolio value, we expect continued challenges also in the third quarter. Moving down to Melnykke on page number 11. As mentioned, the organic sales growth was minus 7% in the quarter, and all regions were negative except emerging markets. That was a single digit in the quarter, driven by strong development in the Middle East. And as mentioned previously, the new custom agreements within PPE will add significant sales during the remainder of 2020, and that is the key reason why we expect a strong sales growth for the third quarter. Profit margin was almost in line with last year, and cash flow was strong. And finally, the Slavko Richter, currently CEO of Salavision, has been appointed the new CEO. Moving down to Permobil, the organic sales growth was minus 17%. Social distancing measures have severely affected the ability to sell the products. All regions were down, except APAC. That was up double-digit in the quarter, and that was mainly driven by Australia. We did, for Promo BC, an increased market activity towards the end of the quarter. The profit margin declined compared to last year, but as you can see, cost reduction initiatives mitigated the margin drop, and the company has done a very good job in adjusting OPEX. Moving to Laboree, here we did see an organic sales growth that was minus 45%. And the reason is a significant decline in elective procedures within both urology and GI. And that is, of course, related to COVID-19. We did for Laboree see a sequential sales growth during the quarter, but June was still well below last year. Clinical innovation, the new acquisitions that they did, which is the maternal and child health business, was less impacted, and the performance was actually close to last year, as these procedures are not elective. The margin, of course, was affected by the fact that top line almost was cut in half organically. but it was upset by good cost containment and also a good performance in the acquisition clinical innovation. Sarnova had an organic sales growth of minus 2%, but if we exclude the reduction in sales related to the AMBU agreement, organic growth was positive. And as you can see, the margin expanded despite continued investment in the business. Runability, here we did see a sales drop of 53%, and that was very much related to lockdowns in the U.S., but also in Europe, of course. The EBITDA margin was negative, the impact, of course, by the fact that sales dropped as much as it did. But this company also was very successful in taking out OPEX in the quarter and to mitigate the profit block. Moving to PIAB, here we did see organic safe being down 16% in the quarter. Most regions were down or all regions except APAC was down. APAC here was driven by very strong development in China. Back-end conveying grew, but the other divisions declined. And also here we did see an increased customer demand towards the end of the quarter. I must say that I'm impressed by the profit margin performance given the 16% sales drop. It shows that the company has been really good in handling it and showing good agility. Moving to three. Stable performance, subscription base was up 2,000 in the quarter. It was up 37 in Sweden, but the overall figure was negatively affected by the fact that 41,000 SIM cards were disconnected in Denmark, so the underlying performance was better. Service revenue was up 4%, profit was up 3%, and the company distributed almost half a billion, of which close to 200 million, was to Patricia Industries. So then, briefly on EQT, on page number 19, as mentioned previously, the total investment in EQT was up 16% in the quarter. The stock market part, or EQT-AB, that is listed, that's about $30 billion for us, and the Fund investment is about 20 billion, so in total we have about 50 billion in equity now. The equity AB listed on the stock market was up strongly, plus 42% in the quarter. When it comes to our fund investments, as you know, after equity being listed on the stock market, we report the value of the fund investments with one quarter lag. In other words, The valuations here is as of March 31. The cash flow was minus 1.6 billion, and that is due to drawdowns related to previous acquisitions and, of course, UX in the current market environment. Going forward, on page 21, so where are we? Well, if I should summarize it, signs of recovery. but uncertainty remains high. Investor has a strong financial position. Despite the fact that we have invested more than $4 billion in Patricia and more than $3 billion in the listed portfolio during the first half of the year, the leverage is only 5%, which is in the lower end of our target range. We have a strong and well-positioned portfolio of companies, And we will, of course, do all we can to continue the development of these companies as an engaged owner. Moving to slide number 22 then, what we have seen in this crisis, of course, is a very severe and unfortunately health crisis with a severe unfortunate effect on the social side of the world. But on the other hand, there are, of course, several lessons learned that can be used in business. First of all, we see acceleration of the long-term trends within digitalization, automation, and integration of sustainability into the business lines. This is clearly accelerated as many companies now have learned much faster than without COVID-19 how to handle these areas. Except the trends, I would also say that many companies are now looking into how can we use the lessons learned to really improve the efficiency and new ways of working. Finally, I would also say that we have, for sure, we want our companies to be cost efficient in the supply chains, but I think the COVID-19 crisis and also some geopolitical discussions also shows that there is always a balance between resilience and efficiency, and that is also a top priority for many companies. And finally, most importantly, in this crisis, many companies have actually been forced to sell in a little bit different ways. And these are also important learnings, how this can be done after the crisis in a more structured manner. We will support our companies in trying to catch all these opportunities going forward. And with that opening, I hand over to Helena Saxon.

Thank you, Johan. Looking at the 10-year net asset value development graph on page 24, We see that in Q2, the value of our assets rebounded strongly, and adjusted net asset value ended the quarter at more than 490 billion. Listed companies on page 25, the total contribution to net asset value was 55 billion in the quarter, and the overall listed companies TSR was 19% compared to 617%. And on the graph on the right-hand side, we can see that all listed companies rebounded, as you have seen, and the strongest performers were Husqvarna, Sobe, and Electrolux. Patricia, industry development in the second quarter on page 26 was slightly negative, with a total return of minus 2%. Earnings and currency impacted valuations negatively, while multiples were up and had a positive impact on estimated market values. On page 27, looking at the sequential change in estimated market values, we see that Permobil, Lectura, and Piav all contributed positively in the quarter, while Manlyke Ponova and Laboree and Braun were down in the quarter. Financial investments provided proceeds of more than 700 million, and as Johan mentioned earlier, three Scandinavia distributed almost 200 million to Patricia Industries in the quarter. Looking at the major drivers of estimated market value by company in the quarter on page 28, we see that the estimated market value of Permobil increased by 1.8 billion Swedish krona in the quarter due to higher multiple cash flow, but impacted negatively by a profit decline. The U.S. subsidiaries Laboree and Bonability were both down 700-800 million krona in the quarter due to lower profits and currency impacting negatively, while multiples had a positive impact in the quarter. Three Scandinavians estimated market value was down 1 billion kronor in the quarter due to lower multiples impacting negatively, while higher profits were actually working the other way, having a positive impact on the value. And also there was the capital distribution that we talked about earlier. The estimated market value of Manluke was down 1.4 billion in the quarter. This was due to currency and lower profits, while multiples and cash flow generation had a positive impact in the quarter. Our financial position remains strong, as you can see on page 29. Our leverage is at the bottom of the target range, as Johan mentioned, at 5.1%. Net debt is at 23 billion. Our gross cash position is almost 14 billion, and the average maturity of the debt portfolio is more than 10 years. Our credit rating remains unchanged and is very strong. And finally, on our last slide, Year-to-date performance is negative, but better than the fixed IRAs. But over longer term, which is more important, like one year, five years, and ten years, we see that we have outperformed both the stock market and our social return requirements. So with that summary on our performance, both in the short and the long term, I would like to hand over to Vivica for Q&A.

Thank you, Yuan and Iliyama. Now we will have time for Q&A and we will have some instructions from our operator.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press the one on the telephone keypad. We have our first question from Joaquim in Cunha, V&D Market. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. We can start off with the distributions to Patricia Industries. I mean, they've been fairly stable for the past four years, around five to six billion. So how do you think about the 2020 levels? I mean, should the year over year change? Should it be fairly correlated to the levels of the operating results for Mellon Lake, Permobil and Tree? Or how do you think about that?

I think that from our side, we thank you for the question. We always want our companies to have the right balance sheets. So we will always have it. It's a continuous evaluation. If we believe that one of our companies or more than of our companies have excess cash, then it will be distributed. If that is not the case, it will be kept in the company. So I cannot give you guidance because it will depend on the development going forward. not only the operational performance, but also acquisition opportunities.

Clear, Johan. And perhaps on the acquisition topic, I mean, could you give a bit of a flavor on what new business opportunities you see, both Bolton and the new investment ideas? I mean, you probably won't commit to a timeframe on additions, but perhaps you can comment on where you believe you will deploy your strong cash flows and if perhaps the pipeline has narrowed down a bit.

We are always looking at opportunities both on the private side and on the listed side. And as I mentioned before, year-to-date during the first six months, we have invested a little bit more than $4 billion on the unlisted side and with an add-on acquisition from one of our subsidiaries. And then we have invested a little bit more than $3 billion on the listed side in ABD, Ericsson, and Electrolux Professional. So on the listed side, it's very clear that the stock market will go up and down. And when we see that we see good value, we are ready to use our financial resources to jump in and buy in selected companies. On the unlisted side, we are continuously, even if it's COVID-19 times, we are right now looking into opportunities for some of our subsidiaries to do add-on acquisitions. And that is, as I mentioned before, a strategic priority for us because we have strong platform companies with strong market positions. And if they can continue to develop their businesses and through add-on acquisition, that is a high-priority area for us. So we are looking into that opportunity all the time.

Understood. And finally, a question perhaps for Helena. So on the back of the strong financial position, and we've touched upon the topic before, but regarding the postponed EPS decision on the second installment here, Can you talk a bit just about the moving parts and what scenarios we could see? I mean, I assume it's pretty tied to a potential dividend from SEB.

As you have seen, our board has decided to pay the nine krona per share, as you've all seen already. And there has been no change in the communication regarding coming back during the autumn. I think we will... have to evaluate everything that's happening around us, not the least what's happening with the pandemic and its impact on economy. And ultimately, it's a decision for the board to recommend to them an extra general meeting potentially in the autumn. But we have no more communication on that.

All right, then. Thank you. That's all from me, and have a great summer.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press the one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Garrick Ladebatia, LBG. Please go ahead.

Yes, hello, and thank you. I am looking at Patricia Industries, and excuse me if you've answered this already, but which of your companies within Patricia have received government aid and subsidies? Is there something you could quantify, please?

I think that the government subsidies have been given around the world in many areas, and of course the companies continuously have been evaluating whether there are opportunities to use that. So I cannot comment on the specific companies because those are more operational questions. My view is that overall it is not a significant impact in the total portfolio of given that we have some companies that are quite resilient.

All right, thank you. And with regards to Mallike here, just to make sure I got the drivers this year right, clearly Q1 growth was pretty strong, as some of the elective care procedures were still ongoing, as you simultaneously got this boost from selling protective equipment Whereas now in Q2, there are very few elective procedures. And then with regarding to your forward statement here on Q3 and the rest of the year, is it true that you are both expecting a boost from these new contracts plus also elective procedures starting to gradually come back? Thank you.

Thank you for the question. It's a good but very difficult question to answer because if you take, for example, wound care, you see some areas that are related to elective surgeries which have had a tougher time, but you also have some chronic parts that have been more stable. If you look on the surgical part, you see that, for example, if we exclude this, you can see that we have certain parts of the business relating to clothes, for example, that is strong. Well, if you look on procedure trace and also drapes, it is weaker, and that is very much related to elective surgery. So there are pros and cons in the business. To what extent the different parts will move in the third quarter will, of course, depend on the development of the pandemic and the economy, etc., But if we take the base business, what we see right now, both on the wound care and on the surgical side, and then also consider the new contracts that I talked about, our best judgment today is that we will see a strong growth for the Manbecker Group in the third quarter.

Okay, thank you. That's very clear. And finally, just on a general note here, looking back at the first half of the year, what's been sort of the focus of the investment organization during the first half here compared to normal? And also looking back, how would you sort of grade yourself regarding how everything was handled from the investor A, B side, your investment activity that you carried out, et cetera? Thank you.

Thank you. I think that you should grade us. We should not grade ourselves. I leave that to you. But I must say that if I look on the subsidiaries, we have done two significant add-on acquisitions. One, Tavi in Piaf, and that company has developed well since we bought it, and I see good prospects for that business, not the least because we see significant synergies with the existing business within Piaf in that area. So I'm very pleased with that acquisition. And then the clinical innovation acquisition from Laboree has also developed very good since we bought it. And, of course, here we can say that we were a little bit lucky because since their product is related to complicated childbirth, that is very difficult to postpone. So we bought the business that we really, really like. It's a good, profitable business with good growth prospects, but it's also, of course, very resilient in this kind of pandemic that we have. So I must say that these two companies have really identified attractive acquisitions that I'm very pleased with. And as I mentioned before, we are continuously in the investment organization supporting, of course, through our board's work here to continue to find add-on acquisitions. And you never know in business because it takes two to tango. But my hope And our vision is that we also this year will close add-on acquisitions in our subsidiaries. And we are evaluating a number of opportunities. When it comes to the listed part of the portfolio, we are more opportunistic, as you have seen. We have a couple of companies that we truly believe in. And we have used the swings in the stock markets to invest in these. And during the first half of the year, If we look on the investments we did in Electrolux Professional Ericsson and ABB, we are pleased with those investments. But you should judge us.

Okay, I will. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press the one on the telephone keypad. Thank you for holding. We have no further questions. New speakers, back to you for the conclusion.

Ben, we would like to thank you for joining us today, and we wish you all a sunny and healthy summer. And thank you, Yuval and Salema. Thank you, Yuval.

Thank you. Thank you.