4/23/2020

speaker
Claes
CEO

Good morning and welcome everyone to this quarter one report. And as already stated, you will listen in to me, Claes, and our CFO, Annette. And at the end of the call, we will also open up for questions. And before I start with the formal report, let me give a few words in general about the last quarter. I am very pleased with the dedicated work done by our employees, where we have focused on safety first for us, our partners and customers, as well as supporting system-critical industries such as food production and food processing, pharma industry, as well as communication industry for them to operate. It is also, I feel, very encouraging that our strong efforts with maintaining our supply chain, customer focus and delivery without larger and major disturbances in these challenging times have generated success. So I think this really shows the strong spirit of Munsters and our people. And with that, over to next slide and the highlights the agenda and the highlights later on so the agenda will be highlights or the quarter that has passed it will be me going through that and then of course the one result presented by annette more in depth myself coming back to strategy and sustainability reporting and our strategy moving forward and then myself summing up and open up the questions so with that then moving over to next slide as well and the highlights for the quarter And the impact was impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. With that said, water intake and net sales had the impact. But all our production units, except two minor ones, operated without any major disturbances during the quarter. We saw a robust demand in January and February, except in China when it comes to February. in march it was negatively impacted by the outbreak in europe and america where where we saw a recovering demand coming up in china mainly driven by full strength and as i said earlier very pleasing that other industries have been regarded as system critical in most markets they have a continuous focus on improvements the order intake all in all declined with eight percent with a still healthy water backlog. Net sales declined with seven percent organically and we saw a slightly increased EBIT margin mainly due to our continuous streamlining of indirect costs and mitigations on the COVID-19 effect. Our clear focus now and moving forward is on cash and continuous improvements in the operations. I'm also very pleased that we are setting up and continuing setting up a winning team. We are represented by Pia Grant-Gärdelinder, who has been appointed president of Foodtech. Pia is joining in at latest in mid-August and will bring with her a strong and very well-appreciated leadership style. With that, changing over to the next slide. As I said, demand was impacted by the COVID-19. With that, we see still both long and short-term activities in the market and in the end-user segments. And moving over to the different regions, in Americas, we saw an increase compared to last year. In MEA, a decrease. And in APAC, a slight decrease, as commented earlier. And drilling in a little bit deeper, Dan, in Airtek, we saw a strong development in the subset segment supermarkets, commercials in US. We also saw a strong development of component sites, 2Ms, and services for Airtek in US. TrueTech had a good development in America, primarily driven by good development in Mexico and for software solutions in the US market. Emilia? At that, Airtek, weak development in primarily the industrial segments. Service in Airtek had a weak development, very much a consequence of the COVID and closing down on key and larger markets. Foodtech had a weak development, driven by a decline in Scandinavia and Italy. And here we can also talk about the COVID impact. And at the end, Airtek, at the end, Asia, Airtek had a weak development in the industrial segments. Foodtech had a strong development and a rebound to some extent in the swine segments, but also good progress in layer and broiler segments. Then moving over to the next slide. And customer first and supplying and supporting growing segments. Here we have an example of a data center water taken in quarter one. It is a digital crossroad data center in the US. It is a so-called co-location site, which is that segment continuing to grow. Our solution, very pleasing, delivers energy efficiency and is using water from the Lake Michigan. And here I can say I'm very pleased with the continued progression of Data Center North America. We talk about stability, continuous improvement, focus on the right customers, moving into growth and innovation. It was a good decision to maintain that and continue to improve Data Center North America. And with that then, customer first and a little bit outside in the market, I hand it over to you, Annette, to dig in to the details.

speaker
Annette
CFO

Thank you very much. If we turn to page seven, if we look at our performance this quarter compared to last quarter, last year, and also the midterm target, yes, we have been impacted by COVID-19. And the next phase is down 7% as well. They made it due to the industrial segment within air tickets. If you look at the EBITDA margin, we're at 8.3% compared to last year's of 8.1. And this is a consequence of the continued work with driving cost down and optimization, also the COVID-19 activities that we have been working on. That being said, when you normally look at monthly performance during the year, the Q1 is normally a bit slower and a bit lower, and then it starts to increase quarter by quarter. Hence why when you look at comparison to the mid-term targets, Q1 is usually a bit lower than that. When it comes to leverage, we have been able to drive down leverage quite a bit compared to Q1 last year, coming down from 4.3 to 3.1. And this is really the ability to turn profits into cash and also making sure that the working capital situation is being driven in a good way. The work is continuing with that. That being said, though, when you compare to December 2019, we have a slight increase, but that increase is mainly due to the ethics impact with the US dollar, impacting the debt package that we have. If we turn to the next page, at the end of the day, yes, demand has been impacted by COVID-19, and we have an order intake which is about 8% lower than last year, mainly driven again by the industrial segment. If you look at Airtek, it's about 11% lower, and generally you see most of the geographies being down. If you look at Zootek, there's been a good development, particularly in America, but also in China, that picks up after the COVID-19 situation. Net sales is down 7%, again mainly driven by Airtek's industrial segment. Lower sales in most geographies within Airtek, and when it comes to Zootek, again, APEC is weak, obviously, because coming out of COVID-19 takes a bit of time from a net sales perspective. The US is weaker in all segments within Fintech, whereas Europe is flat. If we look at services in total during Q1, it was about 15% of net sales. If we turn to the next page and look into Airtek, yes, we have a weak demand in the industrial segment, which basically impacted Airtek, coming down to an negative development of order intake by 11 percent on the other hand when you look at it you have been strong development when it comes to the commercial segment so this is an also state of components so yeah which has shown good uh good progress if you look at data centers in the us it declined a bit and also a missed elimination net sales is down seven percent for air tech again industrial segment is driving this whereas if you look at things commercial segments In the US, it's performing very well. And when you look at data centers, very good development in Q1, whereas risk elimination has declined basically in the marine segment, and also the power segment in India has been a bit weaker. If we turn to the next page, food tech. Food tech has had good demand in spite of the COVID-19 outbreak, and China has picked up quite nicely in March. Basically, we had a flat order intake where we had strong development in America from Mexico and also from the software solutions in the US, whereas Asia has been growing particularly when it comes to China where we have seen some nice development in swine, particularly picking up after the African swine fever that impacted us heavily since the end of 2018. We also have strong growth in EMEA and the boiler segment. EMEA, we have seen a bit softer demand. Net sales down 7%, all regions down except for EMEA, where the development was flat. Again, APEC had a weaker development due to the COVID-19 outbreak in China, which mainly hit China in February. And Americas again. experience we can say is in all segments, and there we have seen the overcapacity in the swine segment, which has been hurting us for the past year or so. When it comes to our Ibiza, if we turn that into next page, we had a slight improvement in Ibiza, and this is the continued work from last year when we resized the organization, plus also that we have been working on mitigation activities when it comes to the COVID-19 outbreak. And when you look at Airtek, slight weaker margin basically caused a lower gross margin where we had negative product mix, which partly was offset by lower indirect costs. Fulltech, on the other hand, seen a slight improvement, so we're up to 11.8%, basically driven by a slight improvement in the gross margin and also lower indirect costs. Slipping over to the next page when we look at cash flow and and how that has been going. We can see when we look at the cash conversion, which is basically adjusted above the cash flow from operations, that we have increased the level from a sort of like 35% during end of last year to a level from 55% during these months in the Q1 situation. Again, when we're looking at cash flow from operating activities, they have been slightly impacted by inventory build-up under the COVID-19 outbreak in order for us to make sure that we handle our sourcing flow correctly. And when we look at the net cash refund period, yes, we have been impacted basically by also the assets impact in the US dollar. If we turn to the next page, as again said, the work that we have been doing in turning the property into cash and also making sure that we work with the working capital has made us come down to a level of 1.3. The increase during the last quarter again was related to the U.S. dollar impact. When it comes to our available cash, they remain strong at the 1.7 billion cash. Over to you, Claes, to talk about strategy.

speaker
Claes
CEO

Thank you, Annette. Flipping over to strategy and sustainability reporting and changing slide immediately. Implementation of a refined strategic direction. In today's situation, it's all about acting in today's market, at the same time driving improvements for the future. And Munters is very well positioned in a long-term growing market, driven by climate change, energy efficiency and digitalization. And as said earlier, and proven during this period. We support and act in industries with system-critical functions and or industries with solid growth fibers behind them. So despite the great attention on managing current situation, we are also moving forward with respect to touch. And here we will put even longer attention on how to align future product assortment and pruning out products that we don't need, and optimizing our manufacturing footprint. So it's all about acting today and setting us up for the future. And moving into that then, for customer success in a healthy planet, that's the purpose for us. And it all starts with innovation. It is focusing on the future, on the right products for the future. driving them to modernization, be able to use bits and pieces and puzzle them together, not just inventing a larger assortment. It is about replacing two products with one new, driving energy savings and supporting growth trends. But it's also about markets. It is to act in the right areas. It could be geographies, segments, or it could be sub segments as well but even more it is about being customer centric and here i think we really show that that is at the heart in current environment it is to work with them in the right way it is about driving service it is about value selling it is about getting their attention for what will make customers more successful into the future. But even more so, it is about excellence in everything we do. It is the everyday improvement in every part of the organization. It is also about sometimes to reduce, on and off to stop or exit. That is very much the mantra. And when you can turn this into spin with innovation, markets and customers supported with excellence in everything we do, in the core then, it is about our people. It is about setting leadership. It is about creating business understanding in the right type of organization with a mandate very, very close to where the business decisions needs to be taken. It is about the culture and people development. And all this then, we will continue to drive, even during this business environment. A few examples. Launch of a new controller in Foodtech. I think this is something that proves what I talked about earlier. I see it as the best of two worlds. A better and a more user-friendly product, that is at the same time reducing the assortment. This product replaces several sub-products from the past. It has started to sell well and it has been well received with positive feedback. One example of innovation and digitalization. And if we move over to the next slide then, it is about customers and markets. We have accelerated our remote assistance to merge reality in order for our service personnel to be able to serve customers either at the premise, supported with experts sitting in offices or around the globe, or even so moving forward, be able to support customers without us being there in the premises. also here the best of two worlds driving efficiency and customer support at the same time two more examples and one is our continuous increase on on sustainability it is for our customers it is for us it is actually for the coming generations and our sustainability framework is divided into two parts resource efficiency responsible business practice and people and society and some examples on on the KPIs that we have green electricity moving from 31 percent of total consumption to 40 percent last year safety first total recordable incident rate moving from 3.4 to 2.7 And then diversity and inclusion, the proportion of female leaders moving from 20% up to 25%. And here, this is just the beginning of our journey. We have started to build up even more ambitious goals to set the agenda moving forward. So walk the talk. successful improvements in our operation i think this is a good example to show what we're driving right now this is from monterey in mexico that mainly produces evaporative cooling pads in the past it struggled very much with both deliveries and quality what is fascinating to see here and i think that's the tone that's moving forward that is It includes leadership changes, teamwork, a constant focus on lean, resulting in stability and efficiency. Both a higher output and improved quality and lower energy consumption. A good example on the path that we have put ahead. So with that then, let me just shortly summarize and open up for Q&As. we, on the market moving ahead, we see a continued challenging business environment in the coming quarters. At this time, it is difficult to see the visibility of the affected outbreak, and it's limited. With that said, we have a healthy order backlog, but of course, it's depending on the length and the severity of the outbreak that is currently ongoing. And it could be as earlier stated, risk for increased product delays. At the same time, we are well positioned in the long-term growing market, and our strategic journey continues. And I see clear evidence that the strategy is also delivering in time of crisis, because it's the same triggers that we need to work with. So with that, Moving over to Q&A and open up for you on the other side. So, have you received any questions?

speaker
Annette
CFO

We have one question from Max and he is asking, could you please remind us what your bank covenants are and also the maturity on your bank loans? I think that's a question for you Anna. The maturity of the bank loans are May 2022. And when it comes to covenants, as we listed in the prospectus from 2017, we're talking about a leverage covenant of four and a half, but it's a calculation made on a certain adjustment. Thank you. I think we can open up for questions on the conference call.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question for the speakers, please press 01 on your telephone keypad and you'll enter a queue. After you announce, please ask your question. The first question comes from Carl Lagnumstam from Emilia. Please go ahead.

speaker
Carl Lagnumstam
Analyst, Emilia

Your line is now open. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. First of all, margins are seemingly holding up fairly well in Q1. Could you please give some flavor on what measures you have implemented in Q1? But also maybe if you can share some light on April as well. And have you, in your numbers in Q1, seen any positive impact from the government support programs?

speaker
Annette
CFO

I would say that in general when you look at the mitigations and activities who are taken first of all we are continuing with the long-term work to drive margins up so it's a continuous from last year's program but then obviously also we're doing a lot of things that most companies are doing looking into for instance can we push out costs can we push out new hires how do we work with our shipments, how do we work with our material costs. So there's a lot of those things that we are looking into. But we're not only working on mitigations of cost activities. It's also looking into activities from a top-line perspective. What type of opportunities does rise in the market that we actually could gaze on. When it comes to forward-looking, as you know, we are not giving any outlooks for the years. And particularly not in a situation like this, because as everybody understands, COVID-19 could take off in any turn, which is very hard to predict. But again, I mean, if we look at it, we have been hit now in the first quarter. But as you can see, not to a major extent. And most likely also, as everybody knows, as COVID-19 is traveling around the globe, moving from China into Europe and into U.S., then Q2 will be a higher hit than what we have seen probably during Q1.

speaker
Claes
CEO

And the only additional comment there is the last week in March, we could see a weaker development in Europe and America, but also a stronger development in China.

speaker
Carl Lagnumstam
Analyst, Emilia

Okay, perfect.

speaker
Annette
CFO

Yeah, exactly. And there was another question also. And the governmental subsidies, one can say like this. As you heard, we have had all of our factories basically open. There's two minor ones which have been subject to closure or partial closure. So for us, it has not been about looking into follows during this period of time as the factories are open.

speaker
Claes
CEO

If necessary, I mean, preparations are made for that depending on the situation in each and every market.

speaker
Carl Lagnumstam
Analyst, Emilia

Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. And secondly, I mean, looking at your order book or order intake, it looks quite decent for Q1 given the turmoil. And could you perhaps give any comments on the order intake development during April, which is probably more relevant?

speaker
Claes
CEO

No. As you know, and I think in particular in a situation like this, then, I mean, we don't give any outlooks. What we can see, I mean, comparing quarter to quarter, I mean, then you can see that we have increased the backlog in a good manner. With that said, I mean, some of the increases also then related to subscriptions on implemented software as a service. So that will pin out over a longer period. But all in all, I am, we are very pleased with the health order backlog.

speaker
Annette
CFO

We can also see and we have been faced with some orders being pushed out and so forth. And that's why the questions about what we believe in Q2 and going forward, it's impossible to answer actually. But we are working on making sure that we drive this and steer this during this outbreak as good as possible.

speaker
Carl Lagnumstam
Analyst, Emilia

Okay, perfect. And the final one for me. I mean as you mentioned that the leverage came up to 3.1 times CBTA. Could you perhaps shed some light on what cash generative measures you are implementing in order to secure a healthy balance sheet throughout the market uncertainties?

speaker
Annette
CFO

Again, I mean, first of all, it's making sure then that we drive our margins, so we turn actually our business into profit, and this has been ongoing for quite some time, I mean, since last year, and also since last year, and which you saw also the drive with it is really to look into not making sure that we don't stick our cash into working capital. So, I mean, obviously, we're keeping a close eye on our customers, we're keeping our close eyes on our It says to order processes to make sure that we don't put too much into the inventory and streamline everything to make sure that we turn it into a cash situation. That being said, obviously it's very important in this type of situation to understand that when it comes to logistics and shipping products between the different geographical areas, that needs to be done very carefully. We need to make sure that we don't fly up from behind. which means that during this period of time we're also making sure that all our critical components are being safeguarded, and that to a certain extent could increase inventory. But again, it's basic work in capital management that we're talking about, and operational excellence to make sure that we drive the profits.

speaker
Claes
CEO

And beside that, it is the normal routine in a downturn, i.e. it is travel and occurrence. I mean, we don't even have to pull the trigger on travel because we cannot travel. It is exhibitions, it's spending, it is consultants, and then of course, I mean, always keep an eye on what is necessary to invest and what is just good to have. So the normal health industrial cash routine, so to speak.

speaker
Carl Lagnumstam
Analyst, Emilia

Okay, perfect. And the final, very quick one for me. Could you comment on the service development during Q1? If we could get the number on that.

speaker
Claes
CEO

As I think you've heard me say several times, I mean, service is one of our main focus areas moving forward. And a strong service driven industrial company should have a service level that is above a 30% level. At current, we are around 15% that I would like to say is a flat development compared to the past quarters. service was down due to COVID-19 in Europe, and it was the same or slightly increasing in America.

speaker
Carl Lagnumstam
Analyst, Emilia

Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kenneth To from Carnegie. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

speaker
Claes
CEO

Yeah. I'm still curious about April and what you're seeing now. I hear that you are not willing to comment, but have you seen any dramatic changes, like a complete close down of business when the US introduced their lockdown measures? The US is an important market for Europe. Or is it running slowly? Kenneth, you have to bear with us here. I'm persistent. It's not the only one. I've always been like this. I mean, we don't give outlooks. But with that said, then coming back to the last quarter, that could serve as perhaps for you as an indication then. We saw a drop in Europe and in in America the last few weeks in March, and we saw a return in China, especially when it comes to food tech. That was to some extent predicted, but I have to say it also surprised us positively that it was such a strong one in China. With that said, we were able to keep all our operations, all our factories up and running. And I can tell you, we would not have them up and running if we didn't see that we could fill them up with plenty of orders. But all this, of course, is coming back to the first quarter. But that gives you an indication.

speaker
Annette
CFO

Then, Kenneth, also I would say, when it comes to these lockdown measures, one should remember that we are in a lot of those... those business dreams which are considered as critical to society. We have the whole agricultural segment with food tech, obviously, where there is food. We have food processing in air tech. We have defense in air tech. We have pharma and so forth. So that's also why even when, I mean, in the U.S., when each of the states took their measures, we were actually allowed to keep open. And as I said, it's really only It's really only India which we actually have to close down because that was a complete lockdown with no exception.

speaker
Claes
CEO

And then, sorry, can you ask the answer to that then? As we said, I mean, we are not giving any outlooks for the quarter and we anticipate that the business environment will continue to be tough, if not tougher, moving into this quarter.

speaker
Annette
CFO

And then also, that being said, when you look at then, as I said earlier, logistics and transporting goods, in this type of situation where you maybe have the container ships on the wrong side of the globe and they might be also in quarantine because of trying to avoid COVID-19, that also slows down a bit. So that's why it's important to keep our eyes on the ball from that aspect.

speaker
Claes
CEO

Yeah, also when You seem more relaxed about the situation than I have feared, so to speak.

speaker
Anders Roslund
Analyst, Proeta Securities

How do you balance? I mean, you talk a lot about strategic initiatives and so on, but you feel that you still have the management

speaker
Claes
CEO

capacity to also drive strategic agendas like product assortment and such things. And it's not 100% focused on mitigating the coronavirus effects on demand and health and so on. short comment on that then i think all industries uh and no exception with us that when the corona started uh to to hit and we started to implement actions already beginning of february and starting in china then and i think due to that strong actions safety first good measurements and communication also with the governments and regulatory as we were able to maintain operations then. Of course, I mean, a lot of our focus has been on COVID-19 during the quarter, and especially in the beginning. And I can tell you, even if you may feel that I'm relaxed, I am as unrelaxed as we should be. But I've learned over the years that if I send threats out in the organization, people will not be able to focus on what they should focus on. I'm very, very confident that our business leaders and our strong, committed people can both work with the current mitigations. And I should not go away from we are taking a lot of mitigation activities. But it's a fascinating thing. And I think this is the key here. To drive cash, you need to work with your inventory. To drive future success, you need to drive innovation. your product assortment that affects inventory. So a lot of the things that are in line with our strategy, it's also levers that needs to happen now. And some of them we have accelerated, and some of them we have put a little bit of a break on.

speaker
Annette
CFO

So I mean, in summary, it's not contradictory short-term activities with long-term activities, because you still have to have a certain modus operandi when you run a business. And at the end of the day, it's growth and it's growth and it's cash. So that's why we're relaxed, but it's about being focused and being able to drive these two parameters at the same time. And then the work that we did last year when we started to turn the situation around helps us now when the COVID-19 situation comes in. So we had some wind in the back, particularly when you look at leverage situation, which we took down quite a bit because of looking at margins and because of looking at the

speaker
Claes
CEO

at the working capital so we can continue a lot excellent then also i had one more yeah in in the last conference call after the q4 reports i think you mentioned that you were targeting a product assortment that could be up to 30, maybe 40% lower. And you talked about this now as well, that you can sort of come up with, launch one new product that could replace two older products and so on. So when do you think, how far are you in this process? When do you think we can start to see benefits in terms of costs and so on? We are still very much committed to that. And when I talked about the 30-40% lower product assortment, that is stock standard assortment, I talked about that from a mid-term perspective, i.e. at that time, the coming two to three years. I'm very pleased to see the development taking place initially in food tech. and that they have already started to act start to deliver towards those targets and then with that time perspective i would be disappointed if that would not be delivered uh during that that time perspective and as you know peter giselle that did a lot of good work in food tech he's also the chief implementer now in air tech and i expect that to start to move as well but That's all right when it comes to change. First, you need to commit. And then you need to put all plans in place. And then you can start to deliver. In food tech deliveries on its way, in air tech delivery will start to come. But I'm confident that we will reach those targets over the coming years.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Okay. Sounds very good. That's all for me. Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of William Turner from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

speaker
William Turner
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Morning, everyone. Just going back to some comments that you made on your services business. Can you give a better or a greater breakdown on what your services entails? So what is the split of spares and parts and what proportion of it is actually staff which go into the facilities of your customers and provide labour to them? And then are you experiencing some difficulties with the latter?

speaker
Claes
CEO

uh let me start to lay it out more generically and then we need to come back to the details and split it up in a good way but that is something that we are constantly working on now when it comes to i mean be more transparent in those parts but i mean services if i generalize it you can say services is the the person-to-person part of the type of services that is the base our service Then spare parts connected to that either spare parts that have been implemented in a service contract in the beginning of the business when you do the OEM installment. Our focus here is always have such programs being put in place when do the original equipment. That has not been that in the past. Secondly then on the same when it comes to upgrades of the the installments. We are revisiting now step-by-step the individual installments of us, but also reaching out towards converting competitive business. With that said, I mean, that is the face-to-face service connected to the spare parts. The other part of service, primarily driven in food tech, is software as a service. Here we talk about, I mean, a few, very few percentage at current of the total sales, but it's recurrent revenue that is coming on. And we are step by step signing smaller contracts that will prove our way forward. And then hopefully, and I'm confident that hopefully will turn into reality in the coming years, it will be larger projects. when it comes to software as a service in Crude Tech. So as you can hear, I have to be fairly generic at current, but all in all, it represents 15% of where we are, and we are doing day-to-day improvements. But we will come back on that in coming calls, then, on a more granular description.

speaker
William Turner
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Okay, good. And on your comment on you expect there could be some order deferrals, obviously you have some markets which shouldn't be too affected by the breakdown, like some of the food markets are exposed to. Is there any particular end market where you see there could be potential of the order deferrals, or was that just a kind of generic comment towards the two regions, Europe and Americas? Yeah.

speaker
Claes
CEO

i think you should look upon this as a general comment and and the reason why we look upon this let's say it could be already implemented or close to be uh one project that you turn in a lockdown in a certain market it may be a little bit of delay in installation etc etc so it's not the specific particular segment that that worries us it is more the general call it development on governmental issues and how to be able to move in both as an individual, but also when it comes to freight around the globe. So call it more supply slash individual type of interactions, but no specific areas. And as you rightly stated, we are supporting system critical industries that I know that they need to have them up and running.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Okay, thank you. Thank you. We have a question from Anders Roslund from Proeta Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

speaker
Anders Roslund
Analyst, Proeta Securities

Yes, hello. I have a question regarding short-term but also medium-term demand for certain sectors like data centers, lithium batteries and also food. How do you see the sort of Could you expect those sectors to perform better than other sectors, for example, the commercial or industrial? Do you have any opinion about those differences in demand, both short-term and medium-term, for those sectors I mentioned?

speaker
Claes
CEO

Hi, Anders. Coming back to this, I mean, this is a delicate question. I mean, what is a long-term, medium-term outlook and what is then a sort of a forecast for the coming quarters? And we are not doing that, as you know. But if I take a few of those and I talk about medium-term, we see and we are very confident that Lithium batteries and the electrification of automotive industry, just to give one example, is a good, healthy growth area. And we are confident, thanks to our good relations and our already installed base, especially in Asia, but moving into Europe and then also North America, that we can generate good growth medium-long term there. Then when it comes to food, when it comes to pharma, when it comes to those areas, I mean, I think you and your models may know it as good as us. I mean, those are industries that I think will be, to some extent, positively affected by the current situation. But we will take every opportunity to strike and make deals where possible. But those two industries are also medium to long-term growth generating. And then finally, when it comes to data centers, as you know, we took a deliberate and active decision to exit Europe. A very good decision. We also took a deliberate decision to stay in North America and from the storm days that they had, start to then improve it and gradually grow it. And what we see, it is spinning out to exactly what we projected. We see a healthy development in that sector, and I foresee that to continue for many years to come. Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. And as there appears to be no further questions, I return the conference to speakers.

speaker
Claes
CEO

Good. Then I would like to send out a thank you. And don't hesitate to reach out to us for any more detailed questions one-to-ones later on. Thank you very much and look forward to talk and see you hopefully face-to-face and in the coming quarters. But at current I think we all need to do our very best to mitigate all the necessary actions. related to COVID-19.

speaker
Annette
CFO

So thank you very much and stay healthy.

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