Momentum Group AB (publ)

Welcome to the presentation of Momentum Group's interim report for the third quarter. I am Ulf Lillies, CEO for Momentum Group, and I'm here with my colleague, Niklas Enmark, Vice President of CFO, and we will guide you through our report today. Our agenda today is to give you some information about the highlights from our report and the development during the quarter, as well as financial information. We will round off with us going forward now to the highlights of the report. The business climate in our main markets in the Nordic region remained stable during the quarter. Demand in Sweden was relatively strong, especially in our aftermarket operations, which account for most of our business. However, demand in larger projects remained low. The market in Finland remained cautious, while the Danish market exhibited healthy demand within certain customer segments, particularly in pharmaceuticals and green technology. The group's operations delivered stable sales growth during the quarter, with organic revenue growth of 3%. Consolidated revenue increased by a total of 20% year on year, with the primary contribution to growth coming from acquired companies. EBITDA increased by 27% compared with the same quarter last year, and our EBITDA margin rose to .8% compared to 12.1 last year. This earnings growth was underpinned by various factors, including stronger margins in comparable units and acquisitions. After the third quarter, our operational net loan liability amounted to 334 million compared with 326 million at the beginning of the year. The difference is largely attributable to cash flow from operating activities, acquisitions and dividends paid during the reporting period. Together with our cash and cash equivalents of SEK 781 million, including unutilized granted credit facilities, our cash flow provides us with security and bonds well for healthy financial flexibility going forward. Despite the uncertain global security situation, relatively high interest rates and delays to the anticipated economic recovery remain optimistic. We have a positive foundation for growth in both of our business areas. We will achieve this by enhancing our operations through a clear internal focus on our three fundamental requirements. Profit growth, profitability and development based on our active ownership and decentralized responsibility and the development of our employees. Acquisition also remain a major part of our everyday operations and we will add more outstanding companies to our group that we can further develop together with the entrepreneurs behind them. This once again demonstrates the strength of a decentralized business model. Now I will hand it over to Niklas who will guide you through our Q3 report.

Thank you Ulf. Some comments on the third quarter of 2024, which is of course quarter affected by summer period. But our revenue despite that increased by 20% to 694 million SEK. Of this about 15% or 86 million SEK derived from acquisitions and 3% from organic growth. The organic growth was thus improved from the previous quarter when we reported about 1% organic growth. In addition, during this quarter compared to last year, we had one more trading day. As we commented on in the report during the quarter, we saw an overall stable demand situation with some positives in predominantly in the Swedish market, whereas the Finnish market was more muted. In Denmark, we saw some positive signals foremost from customers within pharma and green tech. When it comes to other market segments, we saw good demand from customers in mining and metal for spare parts, whereas the development in automotive was relatively flat. Also in pipeline paper, we saw signs of a more stable demand after a period of headwinds and as before the defense related industries continue to show good demand. Among the business units, infrastructure was the area that grew organically during the quarter with a strong overall demand for the products in Sweden, not least in Ascalon that had a good quarter. Overall, the companies in the group displayed good delivery capacity during the quarter and purchasing prices and costs continue to increase at relatively moderate rate. Turning to our earnings for the quarter, our EBITDA increased by 27% to 89 million SEK. The EBITDA margin reached 12.8%, which is actually the highest level so far in the group for an individual quarter. The margin increase was attributed to an increase organically as well as good levels for the acquired businesses. Operating profit rose by 26% to 78 million SEK, corresponding to an operating margin of 11.2%. The operating profit is affected by the higher charges for amortization of intangible non-current assets as well as depreciation of right of use assets and tangible non-current assets, both impacted by acquisitions completed. Profit of the financial items totaled 70 million SEK, impacted by slightly higher financial expenses than last year due to higher borrowing in connection with acquisitions and higher interest. Earnings per share increased by 24% to 1.05 SEK for the quarter. For the full nine-month reporting period, our revenue increased by 30% to a bit more than 2.1 billion SEK, with growth in comparable units of 3% and where acquisitions added an additional 438 million SEK. The number of trading days were one more than last year. EBITDA increased by 29% to 252 million, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 11.8%, whereas operating profit rose by 25% to 220 million SEK, corresponding to an operating margin of 10.3%, once again affected by the higher amortizations arising from acquisitions. Acquisition-related expenses had an impact of 4 million during the full period. Profit of the financial items totaled 195 million SEK, and earnings per share increased to 2.95 SEK for the period. Now then, if we turn to the individual business areas, and we start with the industry business area and its business units, power transmission and specialists. Sales and earnings in power transmission, which then consists of the company Momentum Industrial, were positive during the quarter. This was due to positive demand for spare parts from customers in the metal and mining industry, which led to volume growth. Other larger customer segments, such as automotive as well as pulp and paper, posted stable demand. The development in pulp and paper was thus more positive during the quarter after a period of headwind. As communicated in the report, Momentum Industrial is in the process of moving its central warehouse from Allingsås during the first quarter of next year. The project is proceeding according to plan, and no material costs have been incurred to date. Business unit specialists posted for comparable units a somewhat lower level of sales, but with good earnings growth. In addition, acquired businesses also contributed revenue of 19 million SEK with good EBITDA margins. The reason behind this is the Swedish businesses, where we noted a generally strong demand, but where the situation was more cautious in Finland. In Denmark, we continue to see strong demand from customers in the pharmaceutical sector, but where the general industry was somewhat weaker. Revenue rose by 7% to 402 million SEK compared with the same quarter of last year, and revenue for comparable units measured then in local currency and adjusted for the number of trading days were unchanged compared to the previous year. EBITDA in the business area increased by 12% to 58 million SEK corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 14.4%. The business area's profitability measured as return on working capital amounted to 69%. And now then to our second business area, infrastructure, which then comprise of the business units flow technology and technical solutions. The companies in the business unit flow technology generally performed well during the quarter with favorable growth in sales and earnings. We noticed a generally strong demand in Sweden and also saw a somewhat improved situation in Denmark during the quarter, once again driven by the pharmaceutical sector and investments in green technology. The market in Finland remains cautious. A significant part of the business units consists of companies acquired in the current or preceding year. Acquired businesses contributed revenue of 39 million SEK during the quarter. The business unit technical solutions displayed a stable sales performance with strong earnings growth to a comparable units during the quarter with overall good capacity utilization in the workshops. Also demand in the measurement technology cluster was positive during the quarter, here actually due in part to increase sales of larger systems. In addition, acquired operations within the business unit contributed 28 million SEK to revenue during the quarter. In total for the business area, revenue rose by 42% to 295 million compared with the same quarter last year and revenue for comparable units measured in local currency and adjusted for the number of trade in days increased by 7%. EBITDA increased by 68% to 37 million SEK corresponding to an increase in EBITDA margin to .5% thanks to improved margins and effective cost control. The business areas profitability measured as a return on working capital amounted to 61%. And now I would like to round off my part of the presentation by commenting on some key financial metrics for the group. Our return on working capital stood at 60% which is then well above the objective of at least 45%. This is for the latest 12 month period and for the same period our return on equity was 30%. We delivered a strong cash flow from operations during the third quarter 87 million SEK which means that during the nine month reporting period our cash flow from operations before changes in working capital increased by 46 million to 240 million SEK. Adding to this a more limited build up of working capital compared to last year means that our cash flow from operating activity increased to 240 million SEK an improvement with 55 million SEK or 35% compared to the corresponding period of last year. Cash flow from investing activities for reporting period amounted to 111 million SEK and this cash flow includes acquisitions of in total 90 million and settlements of deferred payments regarding acquisitions of 12 million as well as net investments in non-current assets of 9 million SEK. Our financial position continues to be strong. The group's operational net loan liability amounted to 334 million compared to 326 million at the beginning of the year and 381 million SEK at the beginning of the quarter. Total cash and cash equivalents including unutilized approved credit facilities amounted to 781 million SEK at the end of the quarter. Now I would like to hand over to Ulf who will give you some words on the final part of the presentation.

Thank you, Niklas. Now I'll give you some input about the three fundamental requirements. Our three fundamental requirements for long term profitability growth are earnings growth, profitability and development. Our earnings growth target is to have an EBITDA growth of 15% and to do so we of course have to increase our sales as well. If we can grow 15% five years in a row we will double our earnings. In order to do so we have to finance the expansion. We therefore have our super-efficiency target of EBITDA through working capital to be larger than 45%. This is a simplified measure of cash flow and the aim is to pay dividend of one third and we also have to pay tax which is around one third and then we have one third left to invest and grow and develop our business. Development. I believe there are two ways to develop a business. One is to develop the offer as well as business ID, an associated offer that supports the business ID and second is to develop the employees and that is very important for us. In order to grow our business we have a framework to work by. We call it our mind and soul and heart and soul. The mind and soul is to have the business development in our companies through decentralized responsibility and in each company employee development. We also like to be inactive owners and work with our companies to find new opportunities to grow and develop the business as well as growth through acquisitions. Secondly, we like to work with heart and soul. To achieve this we believe very strong in decentralized responsibility as well as the willingness to improve. We call this to be better than yesterday and to be able to be better than yesterday we must work with simplicity. Simplicity should reflect our way of working. Simplicity is not about working quickly and carelessly but about working thoughtfully and concentrating. For us simplicity is about simplifying problems and not getting lost in the ocean of details. All in all we build culture. It is important to maintain our company culture now that we are growing continuously every quarter with new talented employees. Thank you for your time and interest listening to our presentation which are available with the report on our website. If you have any question or specific request do not hesitate to contact us through our e-mail or by phone. Thank you very much and have a nice day.