Alimak Group AB (publ) (ALIG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Alimak Group Q2 2026 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO, Ole Kristian Jødahl; and CFO, Sylvain Grange. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to this quarter 2 call of '26. And as always, I have Sylvain with me here. So turning page and a short recap. Alimak Group is a diversified global industrial company. We are a leading provider of sustainable vertical access and working at height solutions. 3,000 employees and now with the new acquisition that we have done, it's actually closing up to 3,200. Drivers for success: we are supported by some fundamental global trends like urbanization, health and safety, the electrification trend and also regionalization on the industrial side that more and more is coming back to Europe, et cetera. And these are all fundamental growth drivers for the group. We do have a leading market position in the niches where we operate. We also have a long history, which means that we have a huge installed base with our machinery around the world over many, many years, which forms a fantastic base for our aftermarket, selling spares and services, which is a fundamental piece of each division and 35%, 40% of the group. We have a strong balance sheet, good cash conversion, which gives us also a strong ability to invest. Turning page. We kicked off in 2020, what we call the New Heights strategy, which was focused on creating a highly profitable, growing, resilient industrial company, which delivers on its promises to the stakeholders. And this is a strategy that has served us well, and we updated it back in '25, and it's something we will continue to drive now towards 2030. Turning page, and these are our current targets, financial and sustainability and maybe the 2 most interesting one on the financial side is the average annual revenue growth target of 8% to 12%, and that we should reach an adjusted EBITA margin of 20% by 2028. Turning page and diving into the quarter. Stable performance despite the challenging market condition. We saw strong order intake in Wind, Construction and HSPS in the quarter, while it was softer in Industrial and Facade Access, but this is due to timing effects. We have talked for -- since I came here about the volatility between months and quarters, and this is also what we see now. The pipe is good. We have a lot of projects in front of us that we have visibility to. And so we don't see anything strange with this. 4 out of 5 divisions performed very well in the quarter. Facade Access jumping margin up to 13%, Industrial delivering stable at 25%. HSPS very nicely stable at 18% and Wind report record at 22% (sic) [ 22.5% ] margin. So it's the Construction division, which faced a continued very challenging market where it's low sales of machinery, which is then giving a disappointing result in the quarter. But as you also know, we changed EVP here 3.5 months ago, and Karin is driving then a focused review of the division performance and how to improve. Cash flow, SEK 280 million versus SEK 180 million (sic) [ SEK 182 million ] last year. So strong good cash flow in the quarter. And then as you know, the other day, we announced the acquisition of Pro-Bel, a provider of suspended access and fall protection system out of Toronto, Canada, which will give us a market -- much more broader market exposure and diversified business for Facade Access, but also for the group. And it will be fundamentally margin accretive to Facade Access, but also to the group. And if you are up to date on the latest press release, you will see that just 2 minutes before we went on to the call, we announced that the deal is closed. So as of now, this is part of the group. Turning page. Q2 order intake was SEK 1,741 million, up 1% also organically, an increase, then, in Wind, Construction and HSPS, lower order intake, as I talked about in Industrial and Facade Access, but due to timing effects. Revenue was SEK 1,762 million, down 2% or 2% organically. We saw good growth in Wind and Industrial, while especially in Construction then driving this down. EBITA adjusted at SEK 303 million, down from SEK 322 million, margin of 17.2% versus 18%, and it's a decrease of 6% year-over-year. But it's also a nice uptick from the last 2 quarters. So -- and it's reflecting basically the difficulty in Construction. As I said, the other pieces are moving well. Turning page. Service continues, of course, to be a fundamental piece and order intake was SEK 721 million in the quarter, up 9% also organic. And it was an increase in Construction, Industrial, HSPS and Wind. Revenue was SEK 699 million, up 1%, also organic with a positive contribution from Facade Access and Industrial division. And yes, great resilience, good margins and a fundamental growth driver for the group also. Turning page, and we dive into the divisions, starting off with Facade Access. Order intake was SEK 403 million, down 11% or 9% at constant rates, and it's driven by timing effects and award dates on some larger projects that will then be coming in the second half of the year. And we also saw some lower order intake in the Middle East due to the turbulence down there, but we, at the same time, do not see any cancellations. So still projects are on the move and we believe will be awarded as long -- as soon as things start to settle down. Revenue was SEK 486 million, down 3% or 1% at constant rates. Service revenue continued to grow, supported by our initiatives on the aftermarket with Refurbishment, Retrofit and Replacement, which we have been talking about strategically for a long time. Also very happy to see new equipment revenue from projects in Asia and compensating for somewhat lower revenue in North America. EBITA at SEK 63 million, up from SEK 56 million margin of 13% versus 11.2%. We saw gross margin improvements in all business units and some negative project mix then, and this is coming from the Asia part of invoicing, which carries a lower margin, as you know, versus the North American, which has a higher margin. And then also then profitability improved due to our initiatives on processes and project execution and a more healthier pipeline that should continue to bring up the margin in this business. Turning page. We continue to focus on our growth initiatives as we have been talking about and happy to see that in Europe and Netherlands specifically, we took some very nice orders on a lighter, what we call type 1 BMU. What you see on the picture to the right. This is important for us to revive more the European market and this offering that we used to have here. So very happy to see that, that's starting to move. We continue to see positive developments of our ideas that we started off also now outside North America and the RRR, which is also fundamental. From a geographical perspective, overall, Europe and Asia, as I've talked about, is fundamental areas for us to improve and all our activities and plans here are also progressing very well. Turning page. And then the big thing for Facade Access, but also something I'm very happy with -- from a group perspective is the acquisition of Pro-Bel. So it's a great company out of Toronto, Canada, which have been then started by Marc Lebel actually 50 years ago, where he did window cleaning in the first 5 years, and then he saw that this is not safe, and he started the company to ensure safety for those that work at height. And he has spent 45 years of building this company. And we are now having this honor to take this further, and it's more than 140 employees. It has a really proven and state-of-the-art operating model, which is the base for this fundamentally or very, very strong and over time, very strong margin. It's, as you know, a complementary offering to us, which has been more focusing on the taller buildings. This will give us more access to lower and medium height building and complementary also product range. So it brings synergies and growth opportunities for us. Running 12 months up to April 2026, revenue was CAD 69 million, which is approximately SEK 473 million. Adjusted EBITA of CAD 24 million or SEK 165 million, giving an adjusted EBITA margin of 34.6%. And this, as I said, also in the call the other day, is a margin that they have been able to sit with over a longer time. Important for Facade Access, important for the group. And again, a really warm welcome to this great team into the group. Turning page, Industrial, good stable quarter. Order intake was SEK 404 million, down 16% or 16% organically, driven by negative timing of projects, but also it's having a very high comparable, as you know. The project pipeline remains strong, and we see opportunities across multiple segments globally and also the Service business continued to perform well. Revenue was SEK 421 million, up 6% or 3% organically, driven by both good equipment and service revenues in the quarter. Service remains strong and the fundamental here is also some refurbishment projects that we have taken and which is a strategic focus for us. EBIT at SEK 107 million, up from SEK 105 million, giving a margin of 25.3% versus 26.3%. It's a good gross margin development, but also then partly offset by our continuous investments into this business to sustain the growth and to continue to develop it and something we will get benefits from in the future. Turning page. Traction is one of the key strategic initiatives that we want to move into. We are a leading player in that opinion, but also traction has a lot of relevance on the industrial side. And we have had this business out of Norway towards the oil and gas market. We had a significant nice order in the quarter here. We're also driving more partnerships and find ways to grow this business. And we also see that we are having constantly a growing pipeline of projects. And we also did a small acquisition in Australia, also related to traction, Fuji Lifts in the quarter. And again, part of this strategy to continue to build our traction base on both the product and service side globally. Turning page to Construction, decent or maybe even in these times, good order intake. Happy to see that, of course, but also a disappointing result in the quarter. Order intake was SEK 389 million, up 19% or 17% at constant rates. We saw increased interest in our mast climbing work platforms, particularly in Australia, where we got a nice order, and this is again driven by our initiatives, while new equipment on our traditional products, hoists and mast climbing work platforms, remains soft and especially Europe. While what we can affect is parts and service, and that's good and the overall growth initiatives that we are driving. So -- and then revenue was SEK 333 million, down 18% also in constant rates. And it's lower new equipment sales for hoists and mast climbing work platforms in the previous quarters, which is then affecting revenues now. And also, we saw some delays in some projects in the quarter, which also affected temporary revenue. EBITA at SEK 28 million down from SEK 68 million, a margin of 8.3% versus 16.7%, something we are absolutely not happy with, driven by lower revenues on the product side. We also had some nonrecurring items in the quarter. And as I said already, we are making and as part of Karin's getting into this business to really ensure that we can improve the overall setup and the profitability. So turning page. Yes, Karin has been here 3.5 months, so she's in the midst of this now, and the objective is to really create a simpler, more accountable customer-focused organization that is now adopted to this market that we see here that the market will come back. We have absolutely no doubt. It's a must, but still, we see that the interest or the financials for our rental customers to invest in new machinery is still remaining very, very low. What I'm happy to see then is that whatever we do on strategic initiatives to ensure growth has paid off well over time and also continues to do, and we now see a very nice mast climbing work platform case where we have developed a solution for a steel plant chimney refurbishment, where we have, yes, this mast climbing work platform solution, which historic has been scaffolding. So one example of initiatives and business that we are seeing also going forward more of. Turning page, HSPS, stable, good quarter. Order intake was SEK 345 million, up from SEK 316 million, plus 9% and plus 7% organically. We continue to take market share in the elevator segment, especially now in Middle East and India, but also from new locations that we have established. While we continue to see a weak construction market also affecting this division and then specifically into the height safety solutions that we are having. Revenue was SEK 319 million, down from SEK 321 million, 1% or 3% organic. And it's a softer performance in North America and lower distribution sales driven by construction in Europe, but also partly offset by strong deliveries to our elevator customers. EBITA at SEK 57 million, up from SEK 55 million, margin of 18% versus 17.2% and it's driven from all these initiatives that we are having to ensure that we protect profit while we're also making a lot of changes to the business. Turning page, changes to the business, the transformation. It's multiple. We basically work in all areas, R&D, product innovation. We have 10 launches this year. And in the last quarter, we launched the Volt Trac Single Phase, the product you see to the right here, it's a small chain hoist. We have finalized the lean implementation into the operations during the quarter, and we have also launched a new brand identity. You can see the new brand to the right here to really also reset and renew a little bit everything inside the business. Great to see that we continue to take business in the Elevator segment, and it's our great Tirak hoist, which is a great solution for all our customers there. And it's also nice to see that we are taking -- continue to take nice business also in fire and rescue with our Tirak hoist, which is a unique product also there. Turning page and into Wind, record quarter. Yes, some of you might remember that this was a problem side when we kicked off our new heights strategy. And now this is starting to turn to be absolutely one of the best pieces of the group. Order intake was SEK 215 million in the quarter, up 36% or 35% of constant rates. Growth is coming from our key OEM customers in the wind OEM manufacturers, wind turbine manufacturers, where we have nice and good agreements with basically all of them. But also supported by some recovery in the U.S. market and also increasing interest in offshore again. Revenue was SEK 213 million, up 20% to 21% at constant rates. Yes, record quarterly revenue and strong execution across all regions. EBITA, SEK 48 million, up from SEK 38 million margin of 22.5% versus 21.4% and it's due to operating leverage, of course, with higher revenues, but also supported by cost discipline and our constant actions to make sure this is a very lean and high-performing operation. Turning page. The market remains to look good. It's an interest in electricity around the world. And basically, everyone sees that this is a fast and a very effective way of getting electricity to the market. So we see record installations around the world. And that, of course, is also pointing to further growth for us. Offshore continues to accelerate. It's coming really back again and also starting to see repowering as a new demand driver, and this is rebuild of older turbines, which are getting a new drivetrain to become more effective. And that also means rebuilds inside, which typically also means rebuilds of the lifts or our solutions inside. So a nice business also there for us coming. On the strategy side, we continue to focus on what we have been doing, and that has been working well for us, being disciplined in everything we do and of course, also constantly drive innovation, product development with our customers. And we're also here seeing more and more value from our digital solutions, which provide online data and support uptime and more customer value. And with that, we turn page to profit and loss, and I leave for Sylvain.

Thank you, Ole. Hello to everybody on this call. So our adjusted EBITA decreased by 6% in the quarter to SEK 303 million, while revenue decreased by 2%. So this obviously implies an adjusted EBITA margin contraction to 17.2%. And that primarily comes from SG&A slightly higher as a percentage of revenue, and I'll come to that on the next slide. But I have to comment here that sequentially, this is the highest quarterly adjusted EBITA since Q3 2025. So down versus Q2 2025, but up in the last few quarters. Items affecting comparability are negligible this quarter. The quarterly amortization of SEK 35 million was consistent with our expectations. It will go up due to the Pro-Bel acquisition and the impact will be estimated in Q3. Financial net charge was down to SEK 33 million. That was expected and the reduction versus Q2 2025 is due to lower borrowings and lower interest rates. With the Pro-Bel acquisition, we expect that charge to go up by around SEK 10 million. So that will take us to circa SEK 40 million. The effective tax rate is up in the quarter, 29.2% versus 25.7% in Q2 2025. That is purely due to the country mix effect. We have less earnings in low rate countries, in particular, Sweden or Middle East, and that is affecting the rate. If we look at the first 6 months, the effective taxation rate is 28.2%, and this is more or less what we expect for the second part of this year. And Pro-Bel is on that level as well. So in the quarter, net earnings came down by SEK 17 million. That's a 9% decrease, and that's due primarily to the EBITA decrease and the higher effective taxation rate. So next page, moving to the gross margin and operating expenses. The gross margin was stable versus Q2 last year on a good level. Construction division decreased due to mix effects, as explained by Ole, but that was compensated by Facade Access, Industrial, HSPS, 3 of them expanded their margins in the quarter. Wind was flat. I said 3 months ago, we were expecting some higher cost due to the war in the Middle East, and this has indeed started to come in Q2, in particular, freight and energy. We have mitigation measures in place, which have protected us, protected our gross profit, and we expect this to continue. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses, excluding IAC went slightly up this quarter, and that's driven by the Construction and Industrial divisions. In the Construction division, the achieved savings were not sufficient to protect the gross profit given the drop in revenue. And Ole mentioned, we were making a deeper review to address the situation. In the Industrial division, we have been increasing some investments typically R&D, sales expenses to fuel and support the future growth, but this has not fully paid yet. With a good sales pipeline, we think it will pay off. But of course, that's a situation we monitor very closely. And then the other 3 divisions, HSPS,Facade Access, Wind, SG&A were stable or decreasing in the quarter as a percentage of revenue. Moving on to the results for the period, which was SEK 167 million versus SEK 184 million in Q2 2025. That's a 9% decrease. Excluding items affecting comparability, result for the period was SEK 169 million versus SEK 184 million, and that's an 8% decrease. Earnings per share was SEK 1.57 versus SEK 1.74 and it's a 9% decrease. We have had the same number of shares. Adjusted for IAC and acquisition-related amortization, EPS was SEK 1.82 versus SEK 1.98 and that's an 8% decrease. Moving to the cash flows. And overall, it's a good quarter. I'm satisfied with what we delivered this quarter. We managed to generate a small cash inflow from working capital changes despite the revenue growth in Q2 versus Q1 this year. That's due to some cash back from Q1 and our, let's say, usual efforts and discipline with respect to cash collection. And as I said many times, we focus on cash flows, and we will continue to focus on cash flow. That's important to us. Next page. Net debt went slightly up in the quarter to SEK 2.6 billion. That's due to the dividend payment, which was partially compensated by the good cash flows. Leverage is 2 versus 1.85 by the end of Q1. That's due to the slightly lower earnings and slightly higher net debt. The leverage ratio at the end of the quarter is still well within our target. As we said, the Pro-Bel acquisition will take us temporarily above 2.5x, but we expect a continued good operating cash flow both on legacy Alimak and Pro-Bel and that will take us back to the target of below 2.5 by the end of this year. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. We invest in organic growth. I referred to some specific expenses, in particular in the Industrial division, R&D, sales and marketing. We continue to work on acquisitions. We have a good pipeline with some very interesting targets. We are conscious we have a higher leverage, but there are still some opportunities we are looking at. We are committed to delivering according to our dividend policy, so 40% to 60% of the net earnings, although of course, it's an AGM decision ultimately. And one last word on ROCE, which decreased slightly in the quarter. That's due to the lower EBIT and it went to 22.7%, excluding goodwill, 9.2%, including goodwill to be compared with 23.4% and 9.5%, respectively, in Q1 2026. And on that, I will hand over to Ole.

Thank you, Sylvain. And we turn page to the summary slide. So yes, stable performance despite the continued challenging market conditions and then that's related to the construction market specifically, but also in the quarter, turbulence from the Strait of Hormuz and the effects that has had on some parts of the business. 4 out of 5 divisions performed very well. And I think this is also a signal of the strength of what we have developed over the last years. The group, of course, we are not fully happy with 17.2% when we have done better, but we are on the right track, and we have fundamentally changed the group over the last years, and we will continue doing that. Focused review is then initiated in Construction division to ensure that we improve the performance. We have strong cash flow, which is allowing us to continue to invest and the new business coming in, Pro-Bel also have strong cash flow, which, Sylvain is saying, which will allow us to deleverage fast. It's a significant addition to the Facade Access business and also to the group. It will make us more resilient. It will create more growth opportunities. It will bring higher profit to the group. And it's also 140 more great people or brains coming in that will all work to continue to develop this even better. So we continue to execute on our new heights, delivering profitable growth, both organic and through acquisitions. And the target is to deliver on our promises to all our stakeholders going forward. So with that, we turn page, and we move to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Oscar Ronnkvist from SEB.

So I'll start off with a question on orders. So you explained temporary effects in Facade Access and in Industrial. So just wanted to hear your thoughts on the levels here. Is it purely due to timing issues? I mean I acknowledge the tough comparables, but is it only due to timing issues? And are you comfortable with the deliveries or the orders coming in, in H2? And in that case, -- could we see that already in Q3? Or should we expect that sometime during H2?

Yes, we are confident about that this is volatility that we see between months and quarters. Nevertheless, it's never so that our order is booked in the future. So I can't promise that we book everything that we have in pipe, but the visibility we have into the future is our pipe, and that pipe is strong. And with our normal conversion rates, it's nothing there pointing to anything else than what's normally. And if you go back in history, you will see the same pattern. So it's nothing there that worry us.

All right. Perfect. So the a little bit softer Facade Access orders, we should not see that really as an indicator of a leading indicator for an even slower construction market.

No. No. I wouldn't say no. So as I said, Facade Access partly -- Middle East is an important region for Facade Access. And there has been no project awards at all during the quarter, which normally there is, but the pipe remains strong. So we know the pipe there. And the other piece is this regular thing that overall volatility between months and quarters.

Understood. Perfect. Then jumping on to the P&L. Obviously, construction being the big dampening factor here in -- on sales and EBITA. But -- so you talked about some nonrecurring items. If you possibly could sort of quantify the nonrecurring items in construction? And also just a question on the order book, which appears quite strong in construction. Could you give any comments on the lead times? Could we see sales EBITA picking up already in Q3? Or should we expect a little bit of a delay there?

Yes, I'll take your last piece first. To give any clear promise about the exact delivery. Of course, we have visibility into our order book, but it's -- it's also a lot of shorter term on the service and the aftermarket, et cetera. So therefore, it's difficult to give some sort of commitment quarter-by-quarter. But yes, the order book picked up, which we're very happy to see. But it's not an overall -- if you look back in history, it should have been on a different level. So -- but we are doing things now also on the cost. It's not -- you can't change, as I've been saying a long time, you can't change fundamentally the cost structure here because that would tear down a fundamental piece both for Industrial division and Construction division, which we're not ready to do. So -- but we are doing still things. So we will save some money. So that will have effect for sure, and we will build a more sharp and focused structure based on the situation we have. The one-offs that you questioned, it is some one-offs, so that's why we also mentioned it. So cleaning for that, we haven't -- but it would more be, let's say, a bit normal to what we have seen over the last couple of quarters margins. So -- it was a small extra drop now due to this.

Yes. All right. Perfect. Then just -- I mean, obviously, you don't have a crystal ball, but do you see any change on the sort of underlying market demand in the construction segment also affecting HSPS, et cetera? Is it increasing a little bit? Or is it still sort of the same with the very uncertain outlook?

I like your question. Is it increasing a little bit? I wish. But we said by the beginning of the year that we thought -- we said beginning '25 that we thought it should come end of '25, second half. We said beginning of this year that we thought it should come end of this year. But then last year, it was Trump with this tariffs. This year, it will Trump with this war. So there's always these fundamental things, which is making it more challenging for making investments. So then people delay investments into this new machinery and rather use them one more year. But it's no doubt these machines will need to be replaced one day. And in the first year here, it was also low investment, but then we have so much to do in other parts of the world that we gained. But that's also a little bit slower now. So that's why we are getting more significant effects. But I'm 100% confident this will come back. It's just a question of time. But I can't say now that I'm seeing it.

The next question comes from Anna Widstrom from DNB Carnegie.

So just continuing a bit on the project delays that you mentioned for the Construction division, for example. Should we see a bit of that improving already in Q3? Or are these kind of delays expected to continue during the second half of the year for some reason?

I can't -- that will be the crystal ball again. But the only thing I know and what we have seen over time is that there is volatility between quarters and months. And what we know is the project pipe that we are working on to projects that we are working on and trying to win and that looks strong. And -- then when it will come and why they are delayed, in some cases, there is some delays in the Middle East due to the situation there. If that will fundamentally change, so those things will start to be awarded during Q3, I can't say. And it's just basically, I can't say when it will be. But normally, some of them come and -- but yes, I can't make any commitments around that.

Okay. But you haven't seen any like shift in this for the last couple of months.