Munters Group AB (publ)

Today we released our Q3 results and we're very happy that you have tuned in and will listen to this presentation with us. I am Ann-Sofie Jönsson. I'm responsible for investor relations and risk management. And with me here today, I have our CEO, Claes Forsström, and our CFO, Katarina Fischer. for those of you who are on the conference call we will open up for questions after the presentation and for those of you who are on the web please feel free to enter your questions throughout the whole presentation and we'll make sure to pick them up afterwards at the q a so with that i hand over to you klaus

Thank you very much, Ann-Sofie, and very, very much welcome to this webinar. First of all, I would like to welcome, I'm super happy to have Katarina here with me today, and you will meet Katarina later on during her part of the presentation. So once again, a very, very warm welcome, Katarina.

Thank you, Claes.

Good. Before I go into the presentation, let me start with putting the quarter in some perspectives. Strong net sales and margin improvements and EBITDA growth of more than 70%. All business area contributing well. Especially happy to see that the sales in our prioritized segment, DCT, battery, service and software within food tech are delivering very well. As per plan, improved operational cash flow and decrease in leverage. I'm also super happy to say that we have a new Indian acquisition in our family now. SICO, a company set for continued growth and strengthening our position in India as well as in Asia. When I meet customers in our prioritized segments, I see improved long-term outlooks for the key segments, such as battery in Americas and Europe. And then also across when it comes to data center. At the same time, I also see changing order patterns and longer lean time to close some of the projects. With that said, I'm very confident that in our future market activities, they will materialize into orders over the coming quarters. And with that perspective, let me walk into today's quarter. I talked about strong net sales and growth and profitability improvement. And in three headlines, it is stable long-term growth trends, solid net sale growth, and continued improved profitability. And if I go into the growth trends in order intake, I reiterate that I see the underlying long-term strong growth drivers, but balanced then at current with that customers are changing order patterns and are placing orders closer to deliveries. In this quarter, we took no larger orders. But you know, I said it several times, some quarters are up, some quarters are down. When it comes to large orders, we are there to fill our factories. The order backlog decreased with some 16%, but still a very, very healthy backlog that will take us through 2025. Moving into net sales. A very good growth of 35%. Organic growth close to 30%. The main drivers, DCT and batteries in air tech. But also food tech continued to show strong development in Americas. A book to bill below one. Some quarters it's below one and some quarters it will definitely be above one. Coming then to continued improved profitability. I'm very happy that we now are showing that we can deliver on the 14% target and also very happy to see that that has been delivered from all different business areas. It has been driven, generally speaking, from increased net sales, primarily in Airtek and DCT, but also in efficiency improvements across all the different business areas. And last but not least, well executed project deliveries. Good development in food tech. I'm super pleased that both in the digital side and in the more equipment driven side, food tech have bounced back during this quarter. It shows that food tech is doing the right things. If I go into the different regions, Americas, air tech, A very active market with a shift of order pattern, as I said. And also really good to see that our drive of selling more and more components are paying off. TCT, active market, no large order this quarter. But really, I met a couple of customers in Americas the last month. And when I look upon what they project for the future, they project an even stronger long-term underlying growth. And food tech continue to deliver orders in Americas. In EMEA, air tech, a stable market, longer contemplation times when it comes to larger orders, service continued to show good progress. And DCT, I'm happy to see that we are now moving forward with our acquisition and show good order development there. Foodtech, I think it's fair to say a slight recovery. But I mean, one quarter doesn't make a full season, so to speak. But I'm happy to see that all our activities in foodtech are starting to pay off. Moving to APEC. A weaker development in air tech. I continue to see the consolidation of the battery market taking place in China. Beside that, I think China is fairly stable. Food tech, a stable development. Growth in broiler and layer markets. But all in all, a continued weak swine market in China. So no real change there. I have spoken about our solid backlog, large orders that will support us into 2025. Without going through exactly when and how those will be delivered, you can see the pattern here. The blue ones are indicating the battery orders and the black ones are indicating the orders in the data center. And delivery will, as I said, be done during 2024 and continue into 2025. And here I can just state, we will continue to fill up 2025 with more orders. When and how, that I cannot really say, but I'm very confident that our strong market activities will continue to pay off. Drilling in a little bit deeper in each and every business area. Order intake decreased with 45%. Here I think it's good to remember that we have had a very, very strong quarter to be compared to. All in all, service continued to show good growth. This quarter, Americas and Apex slightly weaker. Components continue to grow. You have heard me say many times that we can win in several ways. We can win the system orders. We can win the components delivered to competitors. And we can win in the aftermarket. So two good signs that our strategy is paying off. Clean technology, a slight decline due to delays in customer investment decisions, but the long-term projection also here is very healthy. And then, as I said, customers are putting battery orders closer to delivery in all regions. You can say, step by step, going back to a similar order pattern that we had before COVID. And taking a look on the right side here, industrial, we predict a continued strong market outlook for the coming quarters. It has weak enough to some extent in food and commercial and others, but still we see a healthy underlying stable market there. Clean technology, we predict that it will be in growth. And what makes me really happy, 53 percent of the orders are coming from service and components. And here we see a strong market moving forward. Moving over to sales, it's a little bit the same pattern, but here you can say all the different segments are delivering. And that is just a sign of that our strategy set is proven to work. I'm super happy to see an EBITDA margin that improved compared to a similar quarter from 14.4 to 15.4. I regard that as a good and strong margin in a third quarter. And as you can see also, I mean, the order backlog, even if it decreased, it's still on a very, very high level. Net sales close to 2 billion. And what has been driving margin then? Of course, it is the net sales increase, continued efficiency improvements in different areas, and then a contribution from net price increases also in this quarter. Without drilling too deep into this picture, what it tells me is that we have larger battery orders that are coming and going. Then we have general battery orders that in this quarter is somewhat weak. But generally speaking, they used to be in the range of 300 to 500 million quarter by quarter. And then also an observation. If you take a look at the very bottom here, you can see that service and components are steadily delivering at a stable or slightly increasing manner. siku our acquisition in india i had opportunity to visit them just a couple of weeks ago i have to say we have really acquired something that creates a very strong platform for future growth I predict that they will definitely be supportive to our long-term growth target organically well ahead of 10% annual. And then also good to see that they are equitative to the EBITDA margin in relation to the group. three well-equipped production units that can support our growth, not only in the SICO business, but also in our industrial-driven business within Manters. Moving over to data center technology, and let me start here on the right side. In hyperscalers and co-location area, we see a continued strong market. When I listen in to what the experts, the customers are saying, they are indicating that in the past, roughly a year ago, 6-7% underlying market growth. Now they're estimating in between 8 to 12% underlying market growth. For me, that is a very good sign of that the market is there. Also worth a comment here, because I had that question several times. Why are we not selling more into hyperscalers? You know, this slide is showing the transaction, i.e. who is paying what. But a lot of the growth when it comes to colocation is, of course, also fueled by hyperscalers. So some of our largest colocation customers are actually building data centers for hyperscalers. Moving over then to the other side, 89% order intake decrease. You've heard me say many times, don't look upon the order pattern, look upon the progression when it comes to how we deliver on net sales and how we fill our factories. Here it will go up and down, and I'm very comfortable that in the future you will see some upticks moving forward. All in all, I think it's also fair to say that now we start to deliver in Europe as well. We have received a health order on Oasis, a well-known product, and we have a strong and very stable backlog. And as you can see, we continue to deliver on the backlog. Net sales increased with a very strong number. We moved from 378 million up to close to a billion in this quarter. And we continue to execute by delivering efficiency that opens up possibilities to fill the factories exactly as we have said we should do. And I think this is the best result ever delivered in a quarter from data center. Close to 17%. A very, very good result. What has driven the result, of course, is a strong volume growth, as I mentioned, a strong and increased utilization in production. And then what I think we should all be aware of, we will continue to invest in competence and resources to be able to capture future growth. I mean, at the end, this is a market that is here to stay. Also good to highlight here, we are in full swing to prepare for introduction of SciCool split into Europe then. Once last quarter, I think I expressed myself, don't expect to have any orders this year, but I would be very disappointed if we would not take orders next year. And that plan still remains. Moving over to food tech. First of all, strong growth journey in digital solution that continues to deliver. We are so well positioned. We have been putting our investments in the right pocket when it comes to that. But also this quarter, I'm super happy to see that also climate solution and more equipment driven business is also building up orders for the future. Those of you that follows the different arrows and how they are indicated, you may observe that now in layers it's pointing up a little bit more and also in broiler it's pointing up, but in swine it's still at the low level. Super interesting to see in spot direct online with our strategy. Digital solutions now represents 15% of our order intake. And if I move over to net sales, the ARR, the improvement there is about 50% in software as a service. Now moving us up to an ARR, well above 100 million then. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased. It's a combination of the mix, of course, but also increased net sales, the continuous push on operational excellence, net price increases being delivered over quarters, improved debt results and improved profitability. And then on top of that, also in digital solutions, improved profitability. Worth to mention here that is EMEA and APEC still when it comes to the equipment side is fairly weak. I don't see any uptick there but perhaps a good word is it is leveling out in a good way. Here's two examples of the two different perspectives. One from Korea Here we talk about the more equipment driven type of business complemented with controllers. Lavamatic, a mantra solution that is delivering improved sustainability, cleaning there, taking out ammonium, et cetera, from the farm. This was delivered to a customer in South Korea, and the reason was innovation and sustainable technology that makes them more successful. On the other side, the digital side, Amrik Farms Americas, a broiler producer with many different partners. Here we have sold our software as a service, Amino solution, that will deliver to them a much better overall understanding and higher productivity when it comes to the value chain. If I lean back a little bit and take a look upon our future on the different business areas then. The arrows here are indicating where we were when I started to talk about this, and the bubbles have moved in certain directions. If I take Airtek now, what is the focus for Airtek? It is continued progression and profitability. Airtek has now shown that they can deliver a profitability in between 13% to 16%, and slightly above that, quarter by quarter. That we will concentrate our efforts moving forward to keep that on that level. Then, of course, it is capturing growth. Delivering our strong market presence in the marketplace. And then to boost it up, service and energy efficient solution. That is the key driver towards our customers. DCT. now reached a profitability that I'm really happy to see. It is about maintaining a profitability. You can say here they have delivered in between 13% to 16% as well over the last couple of quarters. But on top of that, continue to capture the market growth. Then start to deliver in Europe. Food tech. Dual roads forward. Work with efficiency, work with balancing the more equipment driven side, the climate solutions. And then, of course, continue to accelerate, invest and capture growth in digital and software as a service. Really, if I summarize it, it is continue the road that we set ahead a couple of years ago and push that forward step by step. Moving back then into what do we stand for? For customer success and a healthy planet. In this case, we need to deliver solutions to our customers that are sustainable, energy efficient, and help them reach their sustainability targets. But it's also about how we act, what we do. And here are a couple of examples on that. We have a clear goal to reach net zero emissions from our operations by 2030. Step by step, they're moving in that direction now. The use of electricity, 80% of electricity used is renewable. Energy efficiency, that is both sustainability and profitability. for each and every product that we produce we consume less and less energy now moving down from 0.7 to 0.5 and recycling rate yes we can come even better here but we continue to have a healthy recycling rate above 50 percent and here you have to take into consideration i mean we have drastically increased the sales over the last couple of years I'm super happy to see, especially in a Swedish situation right now, when we have a lot of uncertainty in the world, war going on and so on, that our injury frequency is step by step moving down. Our target is to have zero accidents. But now I can say we are definitely on the leaderboard in our industry with 1.2. And then when it comes to diversity, I mean, here we can continue to do much, much better. I'm happy to see that the proportion of women in the workforce is increasing. Step by step, we will continue to increase our leaders as well in this perspective. And we maintain to have our ambition moving up to 30% of our leaders in 2026 should be women. So with that, I would like to hand over to Katarina. And once again, very, very much welcome to Manters.

Thank you, Claes. I'm very happy to be here at Manters, and I'm also happy that the first quarterly results that I'm presenting is strong in several aspects. Claes earlier talked about the order intake. I just want to point out that we have a solid order backlog that takes us into 2025. Net sales grew organically with 28%. This was mainly driven by the strong execution and deliveries within data center technology and the battery sub-segment in air tech. In food tech, strong development continued in the US and services grew organically 7%. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved in all business areas. This was driven by three effects, so a strong volume increase and continued net price increases, as well as efforts to improve efficiency. In food tech, for example, several initiatives have been running over some quarters now to mitigate the lower level of net sales in EMEA and APAC. And now we see these efforts bearing fruit and come through in stronger earnings. Operating cash flow improved, and this was due to the higher earnings and also positive effects from a reduction in the working capital. and due to strong deliveries from the data center technologies. Over the last 12 months, we have made five acquisitions, which has partly been financed through debt, and this has increased our net debt. On the other side, our leverage has decreased, which is very positive, down to the 2.2. One aspect to consider here is that we are in a period of strong growth. So we grow both organically, but also through M&As. And I expect that this will be reflected in our balance sheet going forward. As a new CFO, there are a couple of areas that I want to highlight that I will focus on. But one is, of course, to look at the balance sheet and the balance sheet development, the cash flow, and continue to drive improvements in operating working capital. And with this, I mean the daily work with improving inventory, making sure we have the right safety levels in stock, Also work on payment terms for customers and suppliers, secure cash collection and also secure timely advances. The other area I want to highlight is that I will also focus on the new acquisitions that we have made. Now it is important that we integrate them very well and introduce them to Manters ways of working and also make sure we deliver on the intended business value. In the quarter, the margin improved significantly then, and this was then driven by the strong volume in data center and battery. We also had good net pricing increases, and this is a contribution from all business areas where they have worked very well with sustaining and improving pricing. Also operational excellence contributed positively. And here I mentioned the food tech example before. I also see very good initiatives in all the business area where we are really striving to improve our operational efficiency every day. And I'm really impressed in how Manters is working with the lean concept. Strategic investments, that has increased. We have increased the spending at corporate level to really create this strong foundation for the future growth. We're also continuing the investments in digital solutions. And this is really pivotal for us to make sure that we continue to deliver in an efficient way. And although the values are increasing, our spending in relation to net sales here is stable at the 1.5%. Cash flow in the quarter improved due to the higher earnings and also the strong deliveries to customers within the data center technologies. In terms of investments, we have made the normal investments in property, plant and equipment and also intangible assets. We didn't make any acquisitions in the quarter, but as Claes mentioned before, we did complete the transaction with the acquisition of the Indian air handling manufacturer. And that was closed October 16th. So it should be noted that the payment will be done in the fourth quarter. Over the last few years, Mantor's cash flow has been a little bit more volatile due to the large orders received. And for those of you who follow us, you recognize the table to the right in the slide here that shows the individual components of the operating working capital. So here, as we continue to grow with the large orders in data center and battery, these line items will continue to fluctuate. But it is my ambition to see if we can improve the transparency around this going forward. Leverage has decreased in the quarter, and our ambition is to be in a range of 2.5 to 1.5. This can, of course, vary between the quarters depending on what type of activities we pursue in the quarter, if we make an acquisition, as an example. I should also mention that the finance debt is more negative in this quarter due to the increased debt and also the higher interest rates. With that, I would like to hand it back to you, Claes.

Thank you very much, Katarina, and very well presented. Thank you. So let me bring this into a summary then before we open up for the Q&As. Those that follow us knows that we officially have three financial targets communicated. It's net sales growth, EBITDA margin and operating working capital divided by net sales, the ratio. I'm very happy that this is the eighth quarter in a row where we deliver an organic growth on 10% or above that level. EBITDA margin, I'm also very happy that in this quarter we were up on to the target of 14%. But you know, one quarter doesn't make a full season. But this shows me that we have the capabilities to reach that level. Operating working capital. Here we continue to have some work to be done, as Katarina talked about. Our ambition is to first of all come down below 13% and then gradually work ourselves down to 10% as the years are passing. Strong net sales growth and profitability improvements. That's the headline on this quarter. You have seen what we have been able to deliver. I think for me, that is a proof point that our strategy is really paying off. i come back to that we have the dual situation where actually improved long-term market outlooks especially in data center and in batteries in europe and emea but short term here and now longer contemplation times but i see that we are so well positioned to capture growth and then in everything we do inside the company towards the customer. It is focus on sustainable solutions, and that is what is setting us up for the future. So with that, let's hand it over to everyone out there and open up for the Q&A.

Thank you, Klaas and Katarina. So we will open up for questions on the conference call.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial star 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. The next question comes from Carl Bockvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. My first one is just on the comments you make on the battery market side with the consolidation in Asia and the weaker macro uncertainty in EMEA and the US. Just overall, how does this affect your competitive offering given your strong position in the total market? And the second one is just if anything, how you... how you work with maintaining quality of a backlog and managing risk of cancellations.

Thank you, Carl. And just to make that clear, I mean, what we see when it comes to longer contemplation time, that is very much that it is about orders taking a little bit longer time to be closed in Europe and in Americas. But for me, what I pick up that has not at all been affected by a weaker macro environment, I think it's just the normal sanity check now when some of the customers are feeling that, okay, when and how should I invest? And this results in a later ordering, moving ourselves back to where we used to be a couple of years ago. that you order closer to the delivery. In China, I have said several quarters that the normal pattern in China is that sometimes you grow a market and then it consolidates. And that is what is happening in China. For me, I am super confident that we have a very competitive offer. We are still continuing to win at least 50% of the orders, or what I call then the technology share in the battery market. If I move over to data centers, I'm actually even more convinced after meeting a couple of customers in North America roughly a month ago that we are so well positioned that we have opportunities to continue to grow. orders moving forward. And then, of course, Carl, this is about, I mean, it goes on and off. But I have no worries when it comes to cancellations in data centers at all. And then I have actually very little worries that we will not be able to continue our growth journey there after the dialogues with the customers.

Understood. Let's call it cancellation risk and quality of orders that also goes to the battery segment.

Yeah, I would say, Carl, even more so. I mean, when you start a battery project, I mean, then it's, I shouldn't say no return. On a side note, I can actually make an observation that some competitors of us that have won orders, some of those customers are actually coming back to us now and saying, maybe they... and maybe we should be moved into those projects. But I don't see any cancellations on our orders, and I rate the risk as very low.

Understood and then on the very strong margin trajectory in data centers and air tech I believe after Q1 you raised a bit of a cautious remark saying you know yeah it's a gradual journey but don't expect this every quarter and then the next quarter it was really strong again and I believe you mentioned a similar thing so I mean, are there any positive drivers now in Q3 that we should not extrapolate considering the very strong operating momentum you have?

I think like this, and you know, this is the balance about forecasting or not forecasting. I'm very relaxed in the view that Airtek has been able to deliver now in between 13% to 16% over quarters. There are some seasonal effects. I mean, sometimes we have been pushing our factories and air techs so extensively hard. So if we have possibilities, we may close down a little bit longer over Christmas. But let's see how the customer demand is and if we have the opportunity. But I'm very comfortable in between 13 and 16. And now data center has actually proven themselves to be in that range as well in between 13 to 16. But I reiterate what I said about data center. I would be very disappointed if we are not running rate delivering 14% in the last quarter. Maybe less and less people are believing on me when I say that we will not be above. But at the end, we need to invest in data center moving forward as well. Invest in order to capture growth. But I'm super happy to see the result that they have been delivering.

Understood. That's all for me. Thank you.

The next question comes from Adela Dashian from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, everyone. My first question relates to the profitability progression in the last couple of quarters and how sustainable you believe this is, especially if we see some weaker continuation of the weaker order momentum in the coming quarters due to tough comps. And also most likely not being able to implement the same type of price increases that you have in the last year. How should we think about profitability levels from here on out with that in mind?

Thank you, Adele. And coming back to the same answer I gave to Carl, I mean, we are not really giving forecasts, but if I elaborate on it, I'm super happy to see now that both the larger business areas are delivering a profitability in between roughly than 13 to 16%. I mean, some quarters may be a little bit lower and some quarters may be a little bit up. What I think is Important to remember, that is, if we take now the strong comeback from Foodtech, which I am super happy to see. What a fantastic work made by them. But with that said, quarter four and quarter one is always the weakest quarter from seasonality when it comes to Foodtech. And that, I think, is worth to remind yourself on. Then if I elaborate a little bit forward and say you have heard me say I'm confident that we will continue to fill up with orders. Some quarters will be weaker, others will be stronger. Another interesting dimension to see, and this is not forecasting next quarter, but that is to take a look upon how much we have been able to grow our underlying service business. If you go back to the service business three, four years ago, we have more than doubled the service business. So if it would be a rapid downturn that I don't feel we are into, I mean, then we have a much healthier underlying type of sustainable, repeatable business as a base.

Okay, so you feel like with all this taken into account, this is, I guess, a new base, maybe not on a quarter by quarter comparison level, but still, it's a good base that you can continue to maybe even grow upon going forward?

I think like this. One quarter doesn't create a trend. What I see in this quarter, that is, we have shown, we have proven that we can reach our profitability target of 40%. And then I think we need to continue to strive for that. I mean, this is a long-term objective. That's my open and sincere question. No projections about individual quarters, but I'm really happy to see that we delivered this quarter.

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate the color there. And then just going back to the comment that you made earlier regarding the competitive landscape and some of the customers actually wanting to return to using monster's equipment. Could you maybe specify why that is? Do you think that is your technology being more superior than peers or is there other reasons behind that?

I think, first of all, it's an interesting observation to see, and this has happened in the past. And why do you buy from Munters, if I generalize? First of all, we have superior and very good technology. That is the base. You need to be competitive. We have invested in capacity and a very good way of delivering. On top of that, we have a superior, and here I mean superior local service technician and application knowledge. And now I speculate. It is one thing to promise on paper. It's another thing to promise in real life. I don't say that that is what is happening all the time, but I see signs that some of the customers that has perhaps bought and been buying a little bit more on price are realizing that in the price of Mantra's products, it's a lot of other things included. So a combination of strong products, strong people close to the sites and very good delivery opportunities in our factories.

Thanks for that. And then maybe just finally on the topic of price, how acceptance are your customers today of additional price increases?

I would love to let Katarina in on this, but I think it's unfair to Katarina to answer this straight on due to your short exposure to monitors. Of course, we have been really successful in delivering price during the last couple of quarters. We don't see a large pressure on reducing price. We will continue actually when we have the possibility to move price up, if possible. But the good part is we have also now created an opportunity when and if we need to take a more strategic approach to one or two projects, we can actually lower the price on that to win. But if I summarize it, I don't see an overly quality pressure from customers on us to lower prices.

All right, that's all for me. Thank you.

The next question comes from Carl Dagenberg from Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much and good morning. So a couple of questions from my side. If I maybe follow on on Carl's question in the beginning there with regards to the delivery times, if you could just provide, you know, a reference maybe, you know, how close upon delivery are your customers putting in the orders in, for example, battery today as compared with one and one and a half years ago when the situation was very different. Such reference would be very interesting to your book.

First of all, thank you for the question. And in this case, I mean, there is not one answer on that. But let me average out. Let me take you a couple of years back then. When I started Manters, I think it was fair to say in most business areas at that time then, when you took an order, you deliver it around half a year later, give or take a few months. Then during COVID, and I talk especially about air tech and data centers, more and more longer delivery times came. It was from that it was a component pressure, lack of component. It was in order for the customer to really make sure that they had the deliveries on time. Then we moved up in data center all the way up to sometimes 18 months in advance from when the order started to deliver and it was delivered. And in batteries, let's say, we averaged out of more than a year, 15 months. And you can see that on some of the charts done in the past. Now, I would like to say on batteries, I cannot give you an exact timing, but let's say it is closer to six to nine months than it's to 15 months. But this, of course, is also varying in between projects to projects. But all in all, in data center, it's a little bit more complex. And that is some customers, because we have now opportunities, we have moved our factories so well, we can accept and they want to have shorter deliveries. Then we talk about six, nine months. Other customers that we have been working with for quite a long time. They ask for those, I call it bundles then, i.e. it is this several many different installments over a long period of time. There it could still be a year, 15 months. But the summary of the summary is it's moving, let's say, at least one quarter shorter. And in some cases, perhaps four or five months shorter compared at peak level. I hope that gave a little bit of flavor on it.

Yeah, very much. Very good. Good answer. And maybe just following on that, you know, in a general context, are you satisfied with sort of lead times and component accessibility as it sits today? Or are you still being negatively impacted in certain areas?

It has been a relief. It is very few areas where we see that we are under pressure when it comes to supply chain challenges. We keep the guard up. But I mean, this is also an indication that in some cases, as Carina alluded to, Katarina alluded to earlier, I mean, in data center, as an example, we really geared up our inventories in order to deliver on the requests. And there in the future now, gradually, we can move down inventory values. But all in all, I should never say that I'm not worried because I think it's healthy to be worried. But I'm much, much less worried now about deliveries than I was a year ago.

Okay, very well. And final question from my side, maybe if we can talk a little bit on the strategic overview in the food tech business, if you could provide, you know, what's been happening there since the Q2 numbers and, you know, a bit of the timing would be very helpful and the discussions that are ongoing, if you could share anything.

Let me share a few touch points there. First of all, why are we doing this? We are doing it out from two main reasons. First of all, we see that the digital side will continue to grow. And I'm super happy to see that that is happening as we speak. We are also making an observation that the connection, the link in between what I call equipment and digital is not that strong anymore. It doesn't say by automatic means that if you sell a software, you will also sell a fan. Or if you sell a fan, you will also sell a software. Those two observations then, we are growing in one area and we see a weak link. That is the base of this. Now we are progressing and investigating and seeing what do we need to do on the more equipment side and what do we need to do on the digital side. And the first thing that we had to do that was, of course, to improve our profitability on the equipment. Super happy to see that that is happening. We will continue with this. And I don't want to give you a prediction, but let's say I hope that we will be able to deliver clarity during quarter one next year. But don't take that as written in stone. I am very optimistic. much of the view that, I mean, a strategic review, you present the result when you have done the strategic review.

Okay, very well. That was all from me, so thank you very much.

The next question comes from Anders Roslund from Pareto Securities. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. I had one question regarding the demand situation again and the order intake. You seem bullish on the long-term demand for data center and lithium batteries, and you comment about your discussions with clients, but more specifically, Do you also have a pipeline of discussions? How does the actual pipeline look like? Are there several orders which may come or how do you see upon that?

Thank you Anders. Of course, I cannot state that we have an order before we have the order. But if I give a little bit more granularity on our pipeline, discussions about battery orders has actually increased during the last quarters. That is, of course, not eminent orders coming here and now, but all in all, it is a larger pipeline and a higher demand medium to long term in North America, and the same goes for Europe. When it comes to Asia, I have alluded to that. I think that is the best way to describe it is in a consolidation mode, and that is normally what is happening in China on and off. When it comes to data center, I have to underscore Asia. i see an even stronger pipeline mid to long term and why do i say that first of all i see that due to the discussions and then of course i also base it on what do the macro trends say the macro trends are indicating that the underlying growth in data center has increased from about 68 percent to double digit and up to 11 12 if you're listening to some but The majority of what I based this on, that is an increased pipeline in dialogues. And then sometimes the pipeline is released one quarter. Sometimes it takes two quarters or three quarters. I mean, now the focus in data center is really to start to fill up even more 2025 and 2026.

Excellent. I just noticed when you talked to Carl about the possible sort of production cut in air tech closed down in Christmas etc. Is that more to handle seasonality or is it just that you have a little bit of weaker demand now? How do you see upon that?

A good question, and maybe I should clarify it. We have been running our factories at a super high level. It's always wise, if opportunity arises, and I cannot say that opportunity arises, to do some maintenance work, to do some extra. I mean, so we are set, I mean... It would not be good if we're running the factories at such a pace that we would have an accident or something like that. So my only comment on that, so I don't overrate that, that is, if we have the opportunity to do maintenance work, et cetera, et cetera, during the Christmas break, we will take that opportunity. But of course, that we have to balance with, customer deliveries, etc. It is not coming from the situation that we are lacking products to produce.

Okay, excellent. No, I think I have gotten the good answers.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Julia Utbolt from SEB. Please go ahead.

Hello, thank you. Just to get the order dynamic correctly, so the order intake is weakening generally due to more cautious customers when it comes to larger investments. At the same time, the data center orders are priced on the upside, so it seems to be receiving data center orders in both US and Europe. So are those attributed to smaller projects or Are they rather follow-ups from larger orders that you already received?

Now I had a little bit of difficulty to listen in, but let me try to repeat the question and see if I listened in correctly. First, it was about, I mean, that we do receive, have received orders in data centers, both in Europe and in America this quarter, but no significant orders. The best way to describe those orders that we have received is very much about call it. The best it is not perhaps a base order, but smaller orders. Sometimes it's the startup order of as an example, a new customer that is taking a cycle as an example to start up. We talk about 50 50 million Swedish krona. Some others are follow up orders on on earlier long lasting customers. But all in all, I mean, none of the orders that they've received in this quarter was of such substantial size. And when I talk about the underlying growth factors moving forward in data center, I do see that, I mean, as the pattern has shown in the past, some quarters we may have larger orders and others quarters we may not have. I'm very confident that in the coming quarters and here I have to be vague. I mean, I would expect that we would have larger orders as well, because that is what I sense from discussions with customers. That is also what I hear from the dialogues with our people. But then, as I said many times, we cannot communicate the order before we have an order. But I'm confident that those will come with irregular patterns in order to fill our factories moving forward.

Okay, thank you. And then on the same topic, could you give us an update on how your capacity is developing in Europe with focus on EDPAC, please?

Yes, and I would just like to feel pity for Katarina, but a lot of this is history, because we should also invite Katarina to dialogues, but I hope it will come questions more directed to her later on as well. Edpack, there to make it brief, we are ramping up capacity. We are investing in large capacity moving forward. I'm really happy to see that we took one oasis order of fairly large size this quarter, and we are making progress. I feel that I said a couple of years ago, 200 million, then later 300 million, 500 million, 600 million in order intake and sales. That is the game plan we continue to do, and I'm confident that that will happen.

And of course, preparations for the introduction of cycles. Yes.

Thank you very much, Ann-Sofie. And that is in full swing and customers are interested, but that takes time for them to sort of buy into it. They have to be very, very sure. But I receive positive input there.

Yeah. So we will take one more question from the conference call. Sorry. Is there anyone?

Nope. The next question comes from Mats Liss from Kepler. Please go ahead.

Mats? Mats Liss?

sorry yeah thank you a lot of good questions have already been asked so just briefly again around the order intake here and i guess it's a bit soft i guess but given the strong sales performance could you give some sort of feel about when well momentum will will need some more orders to to to keep the top line growing at this pace

Very brief. You can see we showed one slide or a couple of slides that indicated that when it comes to data center and air tech, I mean, we have a good order intake for next year. And if I summarize it, I'm very confident that we will and data centers carry us into 2025 for sure. And with that said, I don't have any worries that we will not be able to fill up 2025, in some areas 2024 and start to fill up 2026 and such. When it comes to food tech, briefly, I mean, there we have a much more short cycle order intake pattern. I mean, then we talk about half a year from order to deliveries.

Okay, great. Thank you. So, yeah, I think that's all for me.

Okay. Thank you very much for those of you who asked questions, and thank you for everyone who has viewed this session. With this, we would like to say goodbye, and we hope to see you back in February, when we release our full year report. And also please keep a lookout for our investor webinars that we run on a special topic every quarter. So thank you very much. And bye-bye.

Thank you.