Sweco AB (publ)

Society. Transforming it is the most necessary and inspiring challenge we can imagine. One Sweco proudly rises to. Every day since 1958, our concept of architects and engineers working together has brought new perspectives to the most pressing challenges of our time. Times change, but our philosophy hasn't. We believe the collective knowledge of citizens, communities, clients and consultants create solutions that stand out and transform. It's why, with our global expertise and local presence, we're at the very centre of the green transition and society's most seismic trends. Take urbanisation. Digital developments are reshaping the role of the city. Demand for climate-adapted solutions are soaring. A new type of urban planning is essential, with sustainable innovation from micro to infrastructure level. Take sustainability. We're navigating the energy transition shoulder to shoulder with clients, creating solutions that are reliable, resource efficient, climate smart, making society more sustainable and more resilient. And take digitalization, the most powerful opportunity to steer a smarter future. By mastering emerging technologies, we are supporting sustainable urban development at every step of the process. With the expertise, determination and responsibility of each Sweco consultant, together we are solving the challenges of our complex world and transforming tomorrow for all of us. Sweco. Transforming society together.

Good morning everyone and welcome to this presentation of Sweco's Q3 report. We will be joined this morning by Sweco's president and CEO Åsa Bergman and CFO Olof Stolnacke. They will take us through the results of this third quarter and after that we will of course open up for questions. Please Åsa.

Welcome everyone to Sweco's Q3 presentation. Before we present the quarter, let me give you a quick recap of Sweco. Sweco is Europe's leading architecture and engineering consultancy with operations in eight geographical business areas across some 15 markets in Europe. We are a well diverse business operating across three broad segments with a healthy balance of private and public clients. The foundation for Sweco's long term success is our mix of competencies spread across 21,000 experts, our focus on organic and acquired growth, as well as our efficient and decentralized operational model. The third quarter shows that we continue to deliver a strong combination of organic and acquired growth. Net sales increased by 19% in the quarter. Adjusted for calendar, the organic growth was 9% and the The acquired growth was 6%. Positive currency effects added another 6% to net sales. EBITDA increased by more than 40% to 465 million SEC. And there was a slightly improved margin to 7.2% despite a negative calendar effect. The result was mainly driven by our continued good momentum in pricing and recruitment and positive contributions from acquisitions. The result was negatively affected by weaker demand in some markets and segments. Moving over to the operational highlights in the quarter. Overall, we noted a positive development in most business areas. I can conclude that we have done a good job at maneuvering the market conditions and so far adapting well to challenges. The organic growth is on the level where we want to be and it is positive to see seven out of eight business areas deliver strong organic growth in the quarter. We also had a positive EBITDA development in six out of eight business areas. In this quarter, I would like to highlight the continued strong performance in Denmark and Belgium, both delivering a good growth and result. The Netherlands also reported a solid quarter and Germany continues to take steps in the right direction. However, the situation remains challenging in parts of the UK market. This resulted in negative growth and a negative result due to one of cost that we are taking to get back on track long term in UK. We also continue to take necessary actions where needed in other markets. We continue to strengthen our order book and on the M&A side, the pace remains good with three new acquisitions in the quarter, which I will come back to later in this presentation. Let us now take a look at the market situation. The green transition continues to be a core driver for us and a key theme across most markets and segments. We can see this in the energy segments where demand is strong in all countries. We are also seeing good to strong demand in the water segment and in environmental services. Transport infrastructure remains good. But the macroeconomic situation is challenging in parts of the segments where we operate. And this is mainly seen in the building segments. Demand remains weak in residential and commercial buildings. Parts of the industry segment is also being affected in some markets. with clients being more cautious. This means that we need to continue to stay agile and adapt to the market conditions to capture opportunities and mitigate challenges. Our well-diversed offering and flexible organization is a strength for Sweco. And with that, I will hand over to Olof to walk you through the numbers. Please, Olof.

Thank you, Åsa, and good morning, everyone. Starting with the recap of the quarter. Again, net sales, 6.4 billion in the quarter with 9% organic growth, 6% from M&A and 6% from FX. EBITDA, 465 million. We are 83 million up versus last year, but excluding the negative calendar effect, we are 158 million or 41% up. Margin slightly up at 7.2% despite the significant negative calendar. Leverage increases to 1.5, driven by M&A, dividend growth and working capital buildup. Looking then at net sales, we are pleased to see solid organic growth in seven out of our eight BAs with Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands at around seven to nine percent. Denmark and Germany and Central Europe in double digits and Belgium over 18 percent in the quarter. the only exception on growth is uk where we continue to see a weak market in some segments negatively impacting parts of our business across the board the growth drivers have been continued price increases and fte growth we continue to have good momentum in recruiting and personnel turnover has continued to decline in the quarter Looking then at EBITDA, on the EBITDA side, we see a 41% increase adjusted for calendar. We are very pleased by the increase, but we are also aware that we are up against a relatively weak quarter last year. We see margin improvements in three BAs. Despite the negative calendar, Denmark has a stellar quarter with close to 15% margin. Netherlands improves and also very positive to see Germany and Central Europe delivering 8.5%, the highest level we've seen in a very long time. It should be noted that the Germany behind the quarter is also supported by positive project adjustments of around 12 million. Looking then at the EBITDA bridge by business area, Belgium has a strong third quarter with the VK acquisition making a significant EBITDA contribution and the existing business continuing to perform well. Denmark also continues on a very good trajectory and we see significant contributions also from Sweden and the Netherlands. Germany and Central Europe has had very strong development compared to a relatively weak Q3 last year, and a good sign that they are continuing to develop in the right direction. The weakness in parts of the UK market, as you can see, has an impact all the way down to EBITDA. Actions have now been taken in the UK to improve the underperforming parts of the business and redundancy costs therefore also reduce EBITDA in the quarter. Finland improves EBITDA in the quarter, but are facing a weaker market in some segments and are now in a formal negotiation process to reduce personnel in these areas with less demand. The main EBITDA drivers are much the same as the growth drivers, price increases and FTE growth, but we also see positive impact from M&A, from FX and from less absence. Higher personnel costs continue to have the main negative impact. Billing ratio had limited EBITDA impact but declined in the quarter. This was partly driven by the acquired entities, which are not yet fully into the SWECO time reporting and billing ratio follow-up processes. We also see lower billing ratio in the UK, driven by the market development, and also in Sweden. We have been taking actions in Sweden, but we need to continue to work on efficiency, which remains a focus for us. Important again also to mention that the calendar makes this into an even smaller production quarter than normal for us, with seven less working hours corresponding to a negative 76 million in net sales and EBITDA impact. And then finally on the financials, our financial position, which remains strong. Net debt is at 4.2 billion, significantly up versus last year. The LTM cash flow from operations is outweighed by larger outflows for M&A and dividends. And this, of course, on the M&A side, especially goes for the larger acquisition of VK. And we also see seasonal and growth-driven working capital build-up. Leverage is also up at 1.5, but still well below our target. We remain financially strong with available liquid assets of 3.2 billion. And with that, back to you, Åsa.

Thank you, Olof. We continue to be active on the market with three new acquisitions in the quarter, adding up to a total of 10 so far this year. We presented one of these acquisitions in our last quarterly report, the fire protection firm FPC Risk in Belgium. Since then, we have announced two new acquisitions, one larger acquisition in Denmark, OG Rådgivande Ingeniörer, and they are one of Denmark's leading engineering firm in the buildings market. They have a well-balanced portfolio of public and private clients in a wide range of segments. The acquisition will almost double the size of our building business in Denmark. It will also strengthen both our geographical footprint and our position as a leading engineering and architectural firm in Denmark. This is a good example of our ambition to use acquisitions to take market-leading position in all core markets and segments. In Sweden, we made a niche acquisition, Medins havs- och vattenkonsulter, and they are specialized in water surveys. This is an area that is vital in the green transition and where we are seeing increasing demand from both private and public clients across Europe. The acquisition will make Sweco the leading firm in this area in Sweden. Let me now present some of the project wins in the quarter. We continue to win many new client projects, displaying the range of services needed in the green transition. In Sweden, we have been commissioned to support the Swedish authority Svenska Kraftnät in a review and upgrade of the electricity transmission system. In Denmark, we won a project to support the Danish Transport Authority to analyze the access to electricity and green fuels in 39 ports. And in Belgium, we will support Volvo Cars in a project that is part of their plan to increase the use of renewable energy in their production facility in Ghent. Let me now conclude the quarter and present our focus going forward. I am pleased with the quarter. As I said, we have done a good job at maneuvering the market conditions and adapt well to challenges. Going forward, we will capture market opportunities and stay agile and continue to strengthen our order book by being forward leaning, staying close to our clients and winning new projects. and we are happy that we can continue to increase our fees and we will continue focusing on that we see that our efforts improving costs control have had effects and our strong focus now lies in increasing efficiency and i would like to take this opportunity also to extend a warm welcome to all new Sweco employees. We will continue our growth journey by executing on our M&A strategy, as well as attracting the expertise needed to continue to transform society together with our clients. Thank you.

Thank you, Åsa and Olof. And now we will open up for questions. And you can ask them directly through the phone line, of course, but also through the chat function. So please, Sandra, if you can take us through the instructions. Thank you.

To ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. That's star 1 and 1 if you wish to ask a question. We will now take the first question from the line of Dan Johansson from SEB. Please go ahead.

Thank you so much and good morning. Good morning, Dan. A couple of questions from me. Take them one by one, if that's okay. Maybe we can start a bit on the strong organic growth here of 9%. Is it possible to specify what the level of price increases was in the quarter? And also a bit on your thinking on the support from price increases here going forward into the last quarter, I mean, 2024. Thank you.

I think it's fair to say that on the organic growth adjusted for calendar, as we said, I think in Q2, it's about half from FT increases and half from price increases. And then the other factors sort of wash out in the end on the organic growth. So I would say that's key. Maybe a little more on the price increases than on the fee increases.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. That strong organic growth also seems to consume some working capital. I think you tied up 1.4 billion here during the first nine months. What's the prospect of releasing that working capital here going forward? Do you expect it to come here pretty soon or what's your thinking on working capital situation?

I mean, we have built quite a lot of working capital, mostly growth driven over the two last years. And I mean, we're happy with the growth. We're not as happy with the working capital build up. So we will have the normal seasonal release in Q4. But we are also looking into working capital reduction actions, which I think will have some additional effect.

Okay, great. On Germany also, what's your expectation? I mean, it looked quite good in Germany here, even if just for that 12 million booster from Project Adjustment. Do you think that Germany still will have quite volatile earnings going forward or has it sort of reached a higher plateau now with the changes you've made there in terms of the margins?

I mean, as you know, we have made lots of changes, but we have gradually seen improvements in Germany. We have increased the hit rates on the market and we have won nice projects over the last, I would say, year in the German market. With that said, I mean, we're moving in the right direction, but we would like to see more from Germany before we are really satisfied. So step by step, we are getting there.

Yeah, sounds good. Maybe just the final one is nitty gritty here. guess it's fairly small but could you could you specify that that cost you took care thank you it is it is 13 million roughly in the in the quarter the redundancy cost all right perfect that was all for me from now so thank you so much for answering my questions thank you thank you we will now take the next question

from the line of johan dal from danske bank please go ahead yes thank you good morning everyone um i was just wondering what can you say regarding order intake in the quarter clearly you know good invoicing growth but were you able to sort of defend your order book in the quarter

I mean, the order book is stable and orders received is on good level. And as we have reported, the demand for services overall is good. There is pockets of weakness related to residential and commercial real estate and some parts of the industry and then related to more traditional industry. But the energy sector is strong. We're winning nice contracts there. We see also strong water and environmental business and also good demand in the transport infrastructure. So stable order backlog and good orders received.

right uh on the on the efficiency or building ratio which you've talked about some time being a high priority and clearly you know you're talking about that big priority going forward as well but but what exactly are you doing there what milestones are accepting for the coming quarters and years and how do you actually execute on this just curious to know how you go about doing that i mean looking at the year-on-year progression on the billing ratio so far it seems to be sort of a slight decline um in the recent quarters. So, so just back just to hear there.

I mean, the long-term perspective, we have faced, uh, quite a challenging, uh, market when it comes to this meaning, uh, Higher personal turnover, hybrid work environment, and also rapid growth, which of course is a positive one after the pandemic situation, so to say. But it affects the efficiency. And then, of course, as we talked about before, that when we're acquiring companies, they are coming in, in some cases, with lower billing ratio due to their ways of working. So for us, it's a constant process of focusing on efficiency. And then in the short-term perspective, as Olof presented, it's in this quarter related to UK market related and also VK coming in as a quiet company with a lower billing ratio. When we integrate them, their ways of working will be in Sweco's way of working, and a bit weaker in Sweden. We're not satisfied with the billing ratio, and we continue to focus on this. So it is about making sure that we take actions if we are seeing pockets of lower workload, as we're now doing in the UK and in Finland. But it's also about making sure that we work with the organization to really be lean and efficient. And that is a constant work that we are focusing on. Maybe something you want to add?

No, I think that the typical actions we are taking are the ones that we are talking about in the report now, both in the UK and Finland, but we are doing these kinds of actions, but in a more targeted way across all parts of the organization where we see weaker demand.

Thanks.

Thank you. We will now take the next question. from the line of Raymond K. from Nordea. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Good morning. Two questions from me. First one, I saw that billing ratio in Sweden was lower year over year. If I recall correctly, last year Sweden had a record high recruitment quarter and fairly long onboarding processes, which also burdened billing ratio. How come the billing ratio this year is down, if you could help me understand that?

There is a seasonal pattern that we talked about before in Sweden. So the start after the summer period has been, you know, slow. And then it is about being lean enough in the organization. And that is something that we are working on right now.

Alright. And could you help sort of give an estimate of the layoffs in Finland, how much they might impact the financials?

It is way too early to tell. It is a formal process. As we say in the report, it's a maximum number of 65 permanent and 175 temporary layoffs. But it's a formal process that will be concluded sometime around mid-November. So it's too early to say anything about that. And actually, with the process, we cannot say anything about it either.

Got it. All right. All for me. Congratulations on a good report.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. One moment, please. We will now take the next question. From the line of Stefan Nesson from ABG, please go ahead.

Good morning, Ossa and Olof. Just a question on the demand. I mean, we've seen service PMIs coming down during the autumn. Have you seen any change during the quarter and into Q4? Or do you still expect that strong areas are able to hold up the demand weakness where you see in certain parts of your business?

I think what we said now about the continued high demand in a lot of the segments we work in, as also said earlier, that's a good sign. I think the only area where we have changed a little bit is that parts of the industry is slightly weaker. Traditional industry, as also said. But otherwise, demand continues to be good where we have pointed to strong points before.

Perfect. Really good. And also regarding the tax rate, I noticed it was quite high in the quarter. Should we expect, you know, tax rate for the overall SWECO to increase going forward?

No, this is really an impact. It's an impact of having relatively low tax rate because of adjustments last year. We are now at an effective tax rate in the quarter of 23.5%. Depends a little bit on the mix of the profitability in the quarter. So you should not in general expect a higher tax rate. It will fluctuate a bit between quarters.

Perfect. Very clear. Thank you. That was all for me. Thank you.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We will now take the next question. From the line of Fredrik Littell from Handelsbanken, please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Thank you for taking my questions. And again, congratulations to a very nice report from your side. Maybe two questions. On the net debt now, the gearing 1.5 is not an alarming level in itself. I just wonder how you foresee the going forward levels. Are you more cautious on that one or do you feel you still have sort of room to move around in terms of M&As? And connected to that, earn out considerations. Do you have any of those in your balance sheet that we should consider on our side? So that's really on the net debt side. The second question is a bigger one on the public sector and the budgets on the public sector. If also maybe you could elaborate a little bit on if you see any sort of, you know, tougher situations there, or if municipalities have a difficulty to raise their budgets, or if they take down budgets, just in front of 2024, how do you foresee sort of the public sector, if you could elaborate? Thank you very much.

Maybe if I start then with the net debt one, we will see the normal seasonal working capital release in Q4. And as I said before, we are also taking some actions on working capital. So that I think will improve the net debt position. So with that said, we think we have the room to maneuver that we need. And it's not the constraint for us at present.

And on the market situation linked to the public sector, I don't want to give any forecasts and think about the market to come. Of course, for us, it's about staying really close to both our public and private clients. But so far, we see good demand from our public clients. I mean, the level of good, depending on which market you look at, and of course, in challenging time, you need to to stay really close to the local public clients. And you mentioned the municipalities to make sure that you stay relevant as a supplier, no matter what situation they are in. But so far, good demand.

All right, perfect. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We will now take the next question. Sorry. From the line of Johan Lundqvist Sundén from Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning also, Olof. Good morning. Congratulations on the good results.

Good morning. Thank you.

There's already been asked quite a lot of good questions. Two more from my side. The first one is from Denmark, which now is performing... at extremely strong margin levels and also in Q3, which usually are a tricky quarter. Just out of curiosity, how sustainable do you think it is to be running at these kind of margin levels that the Danish business has been during the last, say, four quarters or so? Or what has really made them taking the step change up crossing, say, 14%, which not even the Swedish business has been able to do in many quarters.

I mean, we have talked the last years a lot about implementing this VECO model. And that Denmark have worked hard to implement that model and the way we operate that goes also for Belgium and the Netherlands. And we do the same in Germany and so on. So this is one answer to your question. Another answer is that part of our model and in our strategy is to take market shares. So Denmark has been able to take market shares and be very good at selecting the right market segments and also making sure that they work hard to stay the preferred supplier even if the residential and commercial real estate has weakened the last time. And then it's the combination of acquired and organic growth, which is also part of our strategy. They are strong in their collaboration between architects and engineers, which is also the way we want to operate. So there is many reasons, but they work extremely good when They work with their clients, but they also are working according to the SWEP model, you know, in their projects and succeeding with the work that they are doing on the market, I have to say. Anything to add?

No, I think, and on the margins, I mean, you will continue to see fluctuations as we do in all BAs, but I think what also said Denmark is a fundamentally high-performing business area now, and we believe they will continue to be so.

Yeah. Looking back just at 2020, the Danish business were just running at say 8% margins. And now we have Germany at around 8, if you adjust for the kind of project one-off in the quarter. But how long time could it take working in Germany to build up kind of similar structures from where you stand now?

As I said before, because I got this question the last years to give an answer about how long it will take until we reach our 12% margin targets in each business area. But I don't want to forecast because it's about our step-by-step approach to increasing and building up capacity and skill set of the organization. Because it's not only structural, it's about start to win work and qualitative work and also building up the knowledge and capacity in the way we would like to work in the organization. And that takes time. So, yeah, step by step, we will get there.

Yeah, another follow up on the German business. When the problem pops up, a few years ago in Germany, you talked about that there was a few bigger infrastructure projects that would run for a couple of more years. Has there been any element of that, of those projects ending that has created the step up in the modern near term or Or when are those kind of projects ending?

Some of these, I mean, those projects are sort of gradually ending. So some of them have already ended and some are still ongoing and are not yet finalized. So it's no specific one-off effect from that in the quarter. some of the project write-ups a small portion is are related to the same projects that we that we wrote down in in 2020 but only a very small piece perfect thanks a lot for me thank you thank you thank you

are no further questions on the phone i would like to hand back over to web questions please thank you and there are no further questions from the chat function and before we wrap this up i would just like to remind you also of our capital markets day that will take place on the 14th of november here in stockholm and which also include a site visit to the new metro line in stockholm so there are still possibilities to sign up for that uh thank you also and olaf for your presentations and thank you everyone for joining we wish you a continuous nice day and a weekend of course that's coming thank you thank you very much thank you very much

Society. Transforming it is the most necessary and inspiring challenge we can imagine. One Sweco proudly rises to. Every day since 1958, our concept of architects and engineers working together has brought new perspectives to the most pressing challenges of our time. Times change, but our philosophy hasn't. We believe the collective knowledge of citizens, communities, clients and consultants create solutions that stand out and transform. it's why with our global expertise and local presence we're at the very center of the green transition and society's most seismic trends take urbanization digital developments are reshaping the role of the city demand for climate adapted solutions are soaring a new type of urban planning is essential with sustainable innovation from micro to infrastructure level Take sustainability. We're navigating the energy transition shoulder to shoulder with clients, creating solutions that are reliable, resource efficient, climate smart, making society more sustainable and more resilient. And take digitalization, the most powerful opportunity to steer a smarter future. By mastering emerging technologies, we are supporting sustainable urban development at every step of the process. With the expertise, determination and responsibility of each SWACO consultant, together we are solving the challenges of our complex world and transforming tomorrow for all of us.