Beijer Alma AB (publ) (BEIAB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our webcast, where we will present our third quarter 2021. I'm Henrik Perbeck, and with me I have Erika Stahl, our CFO. In addition to the overall performance of Beijer Alma group, we will also discuss our reporting segments, our 3 subsidiaries. These are: Lesjöfors, a full-range supplier of standard and customized industrial springs as well as wire and flat strip components acting globally, with the majority of its sales in Europe; Habia Cable, one of Europe's largest manufacturers of custom-designed cables for customers in the telecom, nuclear, power, defense, offshore and other industries; and finally, Beijer Tech specializes in industrial trading and manufacturing within Fluid Technology as well as consumables, components and machinery to Nordic industrial companies and also building automation. Beijer Tech is also a platform for acquisitions into new industrial niches. Next, straight to Page 4, please. So I'm glad to report another strong quarter with organic and acquisition-driven growth yielding significant profitable growth. We saw continued strong demand in most customer segments and geographies. It was a broad-based growth with strong organic order bookings and sales, supplemented by additional growth from acquisitions. The operating result was impacted by a noncash item related to the sale of one of our Lesjöfors German units. Profit before items affecting comparability was at record-breaking levels with a healthy margin of 16.5%. The supply chains in the industrial sector are under pressure mainly due to the supply of certain raw materials and input goods, but restrictions on electricity production may also impact production in certain markets. Overall, this is, of course, contributing to a greater uncertainty about the future. Management of the supply chain is a top priority every day for our companies. And, thanks to our diversified supplier and customer base and healthy inventory levels, the impact on earnings during this quarter was limited. Looking briefly at our subsidiaries. For Lesjöfors, order bookings and sales remain high -- on high levels broadly across regions, and the successful integration of Alcomex contributed further, of course. Habia Cable had a strong quarter with growth driven by favorable demand in the industrial sector and telecom. Production was at full capacity to compensate the loss of production caused by the data intrusion in April. And overall, this resulted in an improved operating margin. Also, Beijer Tech noted a strong demand in the Nordics with broad-based organic growth both in order booking and sales. And particularly, the demand remains strong in Fluid Technology. And supported by profitable growth from recent acquisitions, Beijer Tech improved margins. Finally, the group is continuing to focus on acquiring attractive companies that can contribute to our profitable growth. The level of activity, both internal and in the market, is high, and there are numerous exciting opportunities. This quarter, we welcomed two well-managed companies. In addition to Alcomex in Lesjöfors, Beijer Tech acquired Källström Engineering Systems. Next, Page 5, please. Now continuing with an overview of the group's financial performance. So looking at the performance, we can see that order bookings grew by 32%, of which 20% organically. Net sales grew by 35%, of which 23% was organic. With very limited currency effects this quarter, the contribution from acquisitions is significant, with some 12% growth in net revenues. Operating result is up significantly to SEK 220 million with a margin of 16.5%. Moving on to the performance of the reporting segments, our subsidiaries, next, Page 6, please. Lesjöfors, our spring manufacturer, is organized into 2 business areas. These are Industry, mainly customized products to a very diversified customer base globally. The other one is Chassis Springs, These are standardized replacement springs sold to car parts wholesalers mainly in Europe. Order bookings for Lesjöfors increased by 24% and organically 12%. Net revenues grew by 37%, of which 20% (sic) [ 24% ] organically. For industrial springs, the largest business area, growth was 38% broadly across geographies and customer segments. Alcomex is reported into this business area and also contributed in the quarter. For Chassis Springs, demand in the aftermarket was strong. Although third quarter normally marks the end of the high season, we could see that end customer demand remained high and actually even better than the delayed 2020 seasons. So all in all, the operating result increased to SEK 167 million, with margin improvements broadly across business areas and geographies, mainly thanks to high production utilization. During the quarter, as mentioned, the company acquired Alcomex, a leading and growing European manufacturer of door and industrial springs. Alcomex made a strong contribution to the business in a successful integration. A number of activities has been initiated to realize synergies and identify new joint business opportunities. Next, Page 7, please. Now to Habia Cable, our specialty cable manufacturer. Habia is not organized into business areas. However, the sales to nuclear power, defense and offshore customers are usually strongly project related. This can create more volatility, and that is why we show the dynamics of these customer segments down on your left. Demand was good in the quarter for Habia with order bookings amounting to SEK 229 million, up organically by 54% as mentioned mainly in industrial and telecom segments. Net revenues grew by 13% organically. And, as mentioned, during the quarter, production was at full speed and partly compensated for the backlog following the effects of the data intrusion in the spring. At the same time, as you can see in the graph below, the share of defense, nuclear and offshore remain on a somewhat lower level, which created a negative product mix effect. Challenges related to material shortages and to electricity supply in China are expected to worsen during the autumn, although the impact of these challenges has so far been limited. Still, the operating results improved significantly to SEK 23 million in the quarter, which is a strong recovery both from last year and also the preceding quarter. Next, Page 8, please. Beijer Tech operates in 2 business areas, Fluid Technology and Industrial Products, both acting within industrial trading and manufacturing. Further, it's a platform for acquisitions into new product and business areas such as building automation. Thanks to a continued strong demand in the Nordics, growth in order bookings amounted to 40%, where 23% was organic. Net revenues grew broadly by 47%, of which 30% was organic. Within Industrial Products, infrastructure projects in Norway contributed to the organic growth. Within Fluid Technology, revenues remained high and grew organically, with additional contribution from recent acquisitions. Challenges in the form of long lead times and price increases are expected to continue throughout the year and were handled proactively in the company on a daily basis. Operating result increased to SEK 34 million, yielding a strong margin of 10.4% for Beijer Tech. In the quarter, Källström Engineering Systems was acquired. With Källström, we add a profitable and growing company that supplements Beijer Tech's Fluid Technology business area with filling solutions for the growing battery industry. Next, Page 9, please. So I will now hand over to Erika to further comment on the financials. Next page, 10, please.

Thank you, Henrik. Page 10 is the ratio page. It includes a summary of the third quarter and the first 9 months of the year. And I'm not going to go through all of that. I'm going to focus on a few things in addition to what Henrik has already mentioned. One thing that is worth saying again, repeating, is the operating margin of 16.5% in the quarter and 16% year-to-date. These are historically very high margin levels. We have an earnings per share in the quarter of SEK 2.14 compared to the SEK 1.6 last year. And year-to-date, we are at SEK 7.32, which is about the full year earnings per share of 2020. We have a strong cash flow in the quarter and also year-to-date, which is mainly supported by the result improvement. We are tying up more capital -- working capital now than what we did last year. So this is a good improvement, that we managed to deliver a good cash flow despite this. We have an increase in the net debt, up to almost SEK 1.3 billion now after the closing of September, which, of course, mainly is then a result of the recent acquisitions that we have done this year. Even though we now have added debt to the balance sheet, our balance sheet still supports further acquisitions as we are in a healthy position. Next, Page 11, please. And here, we have 2 bridges showing the development of order bookings and net revenue in the quarter. We had a total growth in the order bookings of 32% and net revenues of 35%. As you can see, we have very little currency impact in the quarter. We do have almost identical impact on acquisitions of 12%, which, of course, is from our Beijer Tech and Lesjöfors acquisitions. And then we have an organic growth in order bookings of 20% and 23% in net revenues. And encouraging is that all of our subsidiaries have double-digit organic growth in both areas. Next, Page 12, please. Here, we have 2 other bridges showing the contribution from subsidiaries on net revenues and operating results. All 3 subsidiaries are reporting growing net revenue. And then as we said before, Beijer Tech and Lesjöfors had support from their recent acquisitions. Just below 40% of their added revenues derived from their acquisitions. On the operating results side, we had good contribution from all 3 subsidiaries. Lesjöfors' improvements on operating result is coming from many businesses and geographies, thanks to good cost control and high production utilization. Habia had a quarter with high production, as Henrik has mentioned, to meet demand and compensate for the loss of production in second quarter. Beijer Tech also had a broad result improvement versus last year. And all in all, this leads up to the SEK 175 million in operating result for Q3. And now I hand over to you again, Henrik. So please turn to Page 13, please.

Move straight to Page 14, please. So to conclude on the key development in the quarter, strong demand broadly across business areas and geographies; favorable profitability, thanks to high capacity utilization and price adjustments; challenges in the supply chain with limited financial impact in the quarter, but uncertainty remains going forward. Two new companies acquired in the quarter, Alcomex and the Källström Engineering Systems. Next, Page 15, please. Now I would like to reconnect what has been reported today to our strategic focus. So in the quarter, we report significant profitable growth, both organic and through acquisitions, in line with our strategy. Our diversified customer base is a strength as demand has increased. And with recent challenges in the supply chain, while we are not immune, we continue to show our resilience and manage our customer deliveries. Our increased acquisition focus continues. The consolidation of industrial springs market through Lesjöfors is underlined through the acquisition of Alcomex. Beijer Tech continues to develop as a compounder within industrial niches this quarter with the acquisition of Källström. And, as Erika said, our financial position remains strong to support further growth by acquisition. Fundamentally, decentralized governance is key for us to empower local management and encourage entrepreneurship both for existing and recently acquired companies. Next, Page 16, please. To highlight our focus on profitable growth through acquisitions, I want to conclude today with an overview of recent activities. We have welcomed 12 companies in the last few years, adding new product groups, new geographies and brand-new industrial niches. This year, the impact for the group is significant, adding almost 15% of growth in annual terms. And the year is not over yet. So going over to Page 17, we will now open up for questions. So please, operator, go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea.

It's Carl here from Nordea. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly, you mentioned that you had limited impact from component shortages in the quarter, but you have -- you are facing more uncertainties going forward. Could you give some flavor on that? Were you -- or even quantify the uncertainties? Did -- have you seen increased component shortages now in beginning or during October? Or how should we view it?

So some flavor on that. For Beijer Alma, there are, of course -- for our companies, there are 2 types of effects. One is sort of a direct effect. And as I mentioned, this is mainly for raw materials for our manufacturing companies. And also in the trading business, there can be some materials or components or -- that we trade. However, there is also the other side of it, which is an indirect effect, where our customers, although we can deliver, so to say, the customers might face production limitations on their side. And as I explained, we are -- this is really a daily focus. And for -- and starting with having good inventory levels. We have a good starting point. And so far, when I say that there is no -- there is limited impact, it is really on the level that looking at the whole performance of our subsidiaries and on Beijer Alma, we have managed to solve this for our customers. But once again, there is an uncertainty out there, and this remains. So hard work going forward. Some issues in specific products. But overall, on a group level, the impact is not significant this quarter.

Okay. Perfect. And also, as you are, in some segments, selling to distributors, could you -- I mean, we know that quite a lot of companies are building inventory to ensure capacity, right? So would you say that you have benefited from pre-buying effect or inventory buildup effect from your customers?

I would say probably so. It is hard to quantify. But in some industrial segments, distributors or OEMs for that sake, there is probably a component of buildup of their inventory that supports our strong demand. But it's hard to quantify how much that part is. But some part of that is probably true.

Okay. Perfect. And also, as you mentioned, you have quite strong -- or you have short order books, but you have delivered pretty good 20% organic order intake growth. How much should we read into that going forward? How much is already delivered?

Typically, it's a little bit different from our different companies. But overall, for Beijer Alma, I would say that typically, more than half of that is sold throughout the quarter, somewhere along that, between 1 and 2 months or -- on average in the different companies. We have -- of course, there are some exceptions where you can have larger orders coming well ahead in time. But overall, in the -- both in manufacturing and also the trading businesses, significant parties sold also during the quarter.

Then it sounds like the demand situation is holding up quite well, right?

Yes. As we have reported, it is a strong quarter. And also, even in some very specific business areas, as I mentioned and pointed out, in the Chassis Springs for Lesjöfors, where normally it's a more seasonal effect, we saw continued strong demand. So that is what we can report today.

Perfect. And the final one from my side. I mean you mentioned that you, for sure, have accelerated your M&A pace. Could you give us some flavor on your current pipeline, if you have any live deals in the -- or LOI phase currently?

As I mentioned, this is a focus for us and there is good activity in the market and internally with us. But of course, when it comes to specific deals, the nature of the business is such that we cannot really forecast that. But we are very intensively continuing to develop in this area. And so you will find out as soon as anything has been signed.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from [ Llama ] from [indiscernible] Bank.

I have a question regarding Lesjöfors. You mentioned that you're looking into synergies. Could you perhaps elaborate a bit on these initiatives and perhaps elaborate a bit on your expectations on the magnitude of these initiatives?

Well, as you will now -- having followed Lesjöfors, when we -- typically for acquisitions, we buy healthy and good companies stand-alone. However, in -- being part of Lesjöfors group creates a lot of opportunities. The main ones are related to cross-sales between different geographies and companies. In the same case with Alcomex, we bring in, of course, a very strong leader in the door spring segment, and we will actively look for possibilities to market that further. It is also a significant investment, and we are also looking into procurement synergies. And so there are a couple of areas where for sure we see a lot of cross-fertilization between the two groups, actually. However, we will not quantify this at this stage as most of these synergies normally play out in the first year or 2, so.

All right. And also, one question regarding Beijer Tech and more specifically the profitability. How much of the margin improvement that we see here comes from the acquisitions? And how much comes from weaker comparable quarters?

Well, it is a strong quarter for Beijer Tech. Partly, some of the acquired companies are bringing -- supporting this. But also, we have a quarter where we have worked and managed very actively pricing because of the challenges in the supply chain. And we also have a good effect on good sales levels. So in a sense, the fixed cost part are less due to that. So it is a mix of those two basically, yes.

Thank you. There appears to be no further questions. I'll return the conference back to you, speaker.

So thank you very much for today.