Bufab AB (publ) ($BUFAB)

Good morning, and good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to this Q1 report from Bufab. My name is Erik Lunden, President and CEO of Bufab Group. And together with me here, I have Marcus Soderberg, our Group CFO. This presentation will be recorded and by attending to the meeting, you agree to the recording. I will start this presentation to give you the highlights of the quarter. After that, I will leave the word over to Marcus for some financial highlights. Then I will take you through the different regions' performance. And at the end, we will have time for sum up and Q&A. If we start then with the highlights of the quarter, I would say that it's a good quarter from our side. I'm overall very pleased with our performance. We delivered organic growth and clear improvements in both gross margin and operating margin. I think we execute very well on our strategy with a clear focus on improved value creation for our customers through our offering and also solutions, and this work has clearly started to pay off in the quarter. The organic growth was 2.2% with positive development in 3 of the 5 regions, driven by mainly higher volumes. The underlying demand remained cautious in the market. We saw good demand in industries like energy, agriculture and food and defense, while demand in construction, furniture and interior design continued to be on a low level. Both the gross margin and the operating margin increased compared with the comparative quarter and reached all-time high levels. The gross margin improved to 32.9% versus 30.3% last year, and we have now delivered 11 quarters with improved gross margin compared to comparison quarter. Our underlying cost level was slightly lower than last year, and we continue to maintain a good focus on cost control, while at the same time, we invest in growth where it makes sense. All in all, we delivered a strong adjusted EBITA margin of 15.3%. It's up compared to last Q1 in 2025, that was 12.7%. And it's also very encouraging to see that all regions and the vast majority of our sister companies contributed positively to this result by improving their performance versus last year. I will now leave the word over to Marcus for some financial highlights.

Thanks a lot, Erik. So we'll start looking at the growth during the quarter. We did see organic growth, but still see the underlying demand to remain a bit cautious. But in total, the growth in the quarter amounted to 1.7%. We continue to see a gradual improvement of the organic growth, which is good, which came in on 2.2%. It's now actually the third consecutive quarter in which we see a gradual improvement of the organic growth rate, which we're very glad to see. The acquisition of novia had a solid development in the quarter, contributed with 6.5 percentage points to the overall growth in the quarter, while the strengthened Swedish krona had a negative impact currency-wise of minus 6.5 percentage points. There was a small effect also coming from the during 2025 communicated divestment within Component Solutions Group that had a negative impact of 0.5 percentage points. In terms of order intake, it should also be said that in the quarter, order intake exceeded net sales. Gross margin-wise, we are very satisfied with the gross margin development in the quarter. It increased compared to the comparative quarter and reached a high level of 32.9% versus 30.3% in the comparative quarter, an increase of 2.6 percentage points. The increased gross margin is a result of a continuous focused work to improve both our customer and product mix, landed purchase savings in the quarter, some price adjustments as well as the strengthened Swedish krona effect on the Swedish entities. Over the past 11 quarters, like Erik said, we have seen strong momentum in our gross margin, and we expect this development to continue throughout the year. In terms of operating expenses, operating expenses as a percent of net sales increased slightly compared to the comparative quarter and amounted to 17.6% versus 17.2%. But if we adjust for the acquisition of novia made in Q4 '25, and the revaluation of contingent purchase considerations in the comparative quarter, the operating expenses as a percentage of net sales actually decreased slightly. So still good cost control. The lower underlying operating expenses is also a direct result from continuous strong focus on exactly cost control throughout the whole organization. And while maintaining good cost control, we also continue to invest in various growth activities such as investing in our sales organization, et cetera. So clear improvement in operating margin. We are well on track to reach our overall margin target as a summary. And as I said, strong gross margin in combination with the good cost control that we saw in the quarter led to a clear improvement in the operating margin that landed on a strong level of 15.3% compared to 12.7% in the comparative quarter. Adjusted operating increased with SEK 62 million, meaning a growth rate of 22% to SEK 340 million versus SEK 278 million in the comparative quarter. It's nice to see that all segments increased its operating margin and the vast majority of our operating entities actually improved their overall result as well, which is also very nice to see. Given the strong start of the year, we are now well on track to reach our margin target for the full year of 2026. Cash flow-wise, cash flow increased versus the comparative quarter, actually a direct result of the improved underlying result. There is one thing standing out a bit in the cash flow statement, and that is the noncash item figure in the cash flow statement that is considerably higher versus the comparable quarter. And the main driver behind this is that we build up accruals for the future payment of CBAM, that is EU's new carbon border adjustment mechanism, which affect all our European companies with start of January 1, meaning affecting all our purchases in the European countries from January 1. And the payment for those costs will be due in 2027. So we accrue for those due 2026. Other things worth mentioning is that, as you can see, we build slightly more net working capital in this quarter relative to the comparable quarter, but the development of that is naturally due to that we are now back in organic growth phase, which is good. So solid cash flow in the quarter. If you take a look at the balance sheet, we continue to strengthen the balance sheet throughout the quarter. Debt-wise, the group took good steps in the right direction, driven by a solid cash flow in the quarter. We reduced the overall debt level of approximately SEK 90 million despite the fact that we have a strengthened Swedish krona affecting the loans for the acquired companies negatively in the quarter. But still, we were able to reduce debt with approximately SEK 90 million. Reduced debt in combination with strong development of our operating underlying result in the quarter also led to an improved net debt-to-EBITDA multiple. Net debt-to-EBITDA decreased with 0.2 multiple points, down to a multiple of 2.4, which is well within our financial target range long term. So I guess you can say that we continue to strengthen our balance sheet after acquisition of novia already, meaning we are ready for new value-adding acquisitions when the right opportunities appear. With that said, I'll leave the word over to you, Erik, again.

Thanks, Marcus. And I will then take you through the regional highlights, and I would like to start with the Region Europe, North and East. The total growth for the region was minus 1.3%, of which organic growth was positive 1.7%. Market conditions continue to vary across countries and customer segments in the region. We saw positive development in Finland and Sweden, while demand in Denmark remained weak. The furniture and kitchen sector continued to face lower demand where defense and digital infrastructure remained strong in the quarter. The gross margin improved by 3.0 percentage points, driven by better customer and product mix and the consolidation of purchasing volumes. As in the previous quarters, currency effects have also had a positive impact on the gross margin for the region. Operating expenses increased quarter-to-quarter, mainly due to remeasured additional purchase considerations in the comparable quarter. Adjusted for those effects, the share of cost increased only slightly compared to last year. Overall, this resulted in an improved adjusted operating margin of 16.1% compared with 14.2% last year. If we then continue with the Region West, the region showed a strong growth of 24.7%. This growth was largely driven by the acquisition of novia Group, which contributed by 23.7%, while organic growth came in at a solid level of 6.3%. The organic growth was driven by strong development in France, Spain, Turkey and Czech Republic, and supported by increasing market shares and also better product mix in the region. The demand was particularly strong in sectors such as mechatronics, aerospace and defense. Also, the gross margin had a positive development, improved by 2.2 percentage points, driven by better product mix and higher added value in the new projects. The cost level was in line with last year, reflecting continued cost discipline in the region despite higher activity in the market. As a result, the adjusted operating margin improved to 15.3% compared with 13.4% last year. Finally, worth to mention is that the newly acquired novia Group developed according to plan during the quarter and contributed positively to the region. If we continue with Americas, the total growth for Americas in the quarter was minus 6.1%, mainly impacted by currency effects, which accounted for negative 13.4%. At the same time, the organic growth was strong at 11.6%. The organic growth was mainly driven by price increases and demand in the RV and the trailer market, which is an important segment for ABS remained stable, but on a low level. We also continue to see weak demand in the automotive industry, which particularly affected our sister company CSG in the U.S. The gross margin improved significantly, increasing by 7.7 percentage points. This was mainly driven by general pricing adjustments and also very successful turnaround within our sister company CSG. Looking ahead, we expect the gross margin to come down slightly going forward, but remain on a high level for the region. The cost level was lower compared with last year, mainly due to the divestments of BGM within CSG, combined with continued good cost control in the region. Overall, this resulted in a strong improvement in adjusted operating margin, which increased to 21.7% compared with 12.5% in the comparative period. If we then continue with the Region U.K. and Ireland, the total growth in the quarter was minus 12.2% with organic growth of minus 3.8%. We continue to see a low demand in the manufacturing industry, impacting both Bufab U.K. and Ireland, combined with lower market prices, which impact Apex that are doing stainless. But also weak confidence within the U.K. construction market, combined with unfavorable weather in Q1 resulted in lower sales volumes for TIMCO. The gross margin improved by 2.0 percentage points, mainly driven by sourcing savings and lower freight costs. The cost level for the region was lower compared with last year. This is partly explained by the fact that the comparative quarter was negatively impacted by customer loss as well as restructuring costs for mainly Apex. Overall, this resulted in an improvement in adjusted operating margin, reaching 11.7% compared with 9.5% in the comparative period. Finally, we have Region Asia Pacific. The total growth for the region was minus 25.3%, organic growth accounted for minus 14%, while currency had a negative impact of 11.3%. The decline in organic growth was mainly attributable to Bufab Singapore due to lower demand from some large customers and also termination of an unprofitable customer in that company. Bufab Shanghai saw a small decline due to a very strong comparable quarter in Q1 2025. The gross margin also improved in Asia Pacific by 3.4 percentage points. This was driven by our active work with value-based pricing together with purchasing savings in the region. The cost level was somewhat higher, primarily as a result of lower volumes and currency effects. Overall, this resulted in improvement in adjusted operating margin, reaching 16.6% compared to 16.1% in the comparative quarter. Before we sum up the quarter, I will take us through some highlights in the market. And I will talk about the Middle East conflict, trade barriers and also how we deal with that. While we had a strong start of the year, we have seen developments in Iran and the Middle East have increased the uncertainty in the market. On top of that, we have trade policies around us impacting us and our customers. If we start to say a few words about the conflict in Middle East, we have so far seen limited impact for our customers due to the conflict in terms of demand. Of course, a situation like this creates uncertainty in the market, but the only direct impact we've seen so far is higher cost level on air freight, which has a very limited impact on us as we use mainly sea freight. When it comes to trade barriers like tariffs in U.S., CBAM in Europe, we act proactively to mitigate any impact for our customers and for Bufab. We have clearly seen in the last couple of years that turbulent times often create opportunities for a player like Bufab to take actually market share as customers increase their focus on securing their supply chains and that uncertainty drives consolidation that benefits us as we can help out in turbulent times to minimize impact for our customers. I think it's also very clear that our decentralized operating model makes us fast and flexible and help us to support our customers in the best possible way when we have turbulent times. So all in all, I think we act proactively and are well positioned to grab market share in an uncertain market. Finally then, if we take and sum up the quarter. I'm overall pleased with our performance in the quarter. We delivered organic growth, clear improvements in both gross and operating margin, reaching all-time high levels despite a continued cautious market. Over the past 11 quarters, we have seen strong momentum in our gross margin, and we expect this positive trend to continue throughout 2026. But the market continued to be cautious overall. We see big deviations between segments and industries. While we have seen a strong start to the year, conflicts in Middle East has increased uncertainty in the market, which, of course, could impact the demand if this continues. But as I mentioned in the previous slide, also open up opportunities for market share growth. Going forward, we will continue to focus on things within our control, and that is, of course, to gain market share, gradually improving our margins with a focus on gross margin improvement, delivering a strong cash flow. I think if we continue doing this in a proper way, we will be very good position when the market demand turns back. We see clearly that our strategy pays off. And despite the uncertainty in the market, we remain optimistic about the future and believe that we are in a very strong position for the future. That was my final slide. I will now leave the room open for Q&A. Welcome to this Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] So we start with the first question from Jonny Jin.

I have a couple of questions. I will start with segment West, I think, which sees an acceleration in organic growth, which is good. But could you please elaborate a little bit more what is driving that? Can we assume that previously announced customer wins have a full effect already now? Or is that still ramping? That's my first question.

Yes. Jonny, thanks for your question. Yes, we see good development in several sisters in the West. As I mentioned here, we have a good development in Spain, Czech, France, also in flows. And we're actually doing a good job in grabbing market share. And when it comes to your second question here about this big contract that we secured last year, we have not seen the full effect of that yet. That is to gradually coming in the following quarters. We have seen some impact, but more to come in the coming quarters.

Okay. That's fair. So maybe Q2 and onwards, we'll see more effect on the contracts. Is that fair?

Yes, that's fair.

Good. Then I want to move to Region Americas a little bit. I mean gross margin continued to be very strong, which is impressive. And I think it's up even compared to Q4. So maybe could you elaborate what is driving that? Is there any artificial timing boost or similar that we need to be aware of affecting the gross margin in Americas, because a lot of moving parts with divestments and structural changes, but also the timing of certain effects. Could you elaborate that, please?

Yes. As I mentioned also previously, we have seen very good development in our sister company, CSG, that is more or less a turnaround case. They had struggled with low profitability for some time. And the new management have done a good job in the last couple of quarters to change the way of working and also changing the profiles of customers and we are working. On top of that, we also divested BGM that was the manufacturing part of CSG. So that is one explanation why we see big improvement in performance in the region. On top of that, ABS has done a good job in working with both market share, but also on the pricing within their operations and also positively contributed to the gross margin. But there are some extra boost right now. So we expect some decline on gross margin going forward, but still be on a high level. So good work done, but maybe a little bit extra boost now in this quarter, but will remain on a high level also going forward.

That's fair. Could you quantify, please, the boost effect, the timing effect in this quarter?

No, I can't. We will not give any more details around that.

Okay. Fair enough. I need to try at least. But then I want to ask another one. I mean your comment there around slightly lower gross margin in Americas going forward, I think that's understandable because you previously mentioned that the boost from the tariff, I think that was coming into the comparables here in Q2 also. So I think last year, you said that roughly half of the gross margin improvement year-on-year stem from temporary effects. I think that's roughly 2.5 percentage points in that area. Is that sort of the magnitude we can expect decrease going forward? Or -- is that fair?

No, I don't think you should really take that conclusion fully, because we also have a big impact on the CSG operation that was not in that equation that much. That was mainly due to the situation in ABS. So you can't fully take that conclusion, because we also have a big impact on CSG's performance.

Okay. Yes, that's clear. Then just one final from my side. I think Fastenal had mentioned some timing lag in price increases actions to keep up with input cost and tariffs and such. Is that something that you have seen as well or...

No, not really. We have, I think, acted quite quickly on that. So if you mean there would be any lagging effect, so no, not really.

Henric Hintze, welcome to ask your question.

This is Henric at ABG. I just wanted to ask a bit on Region Asia Pacific. So like you mentioned, sales down here quite a lot, and it's been a bit volatile maybe on volume. Could you give us any sort of indication on what a normal level to expect here is and what is driving this?

Yes. The reason why we see this volatile numbers in the quarter is mainly driven then to Bufab Singapore. And that is driven by some customers that show lower demand in this quarter versus last year. And then on top of that, we have decided to step out from some unprofitable business that impact negative in the quarter. Having said that, I think looking forward, we continue to see a strong momentum in the other sisters in the region. So those big variations, we don't expect to see in the coming quarter as we saw in this quarter. So less volatile is expected going forward.

Okay. But is this Q1 level sort of a reasonable level to expect?

We don't know exactly what will happen in the terms of demand in the coming quarters. There's still a lot of uncertainty in that region, also driven by the situation in Middle East impacting some of the sisters. So it's very difficult to predict and give guidelines on how the demand will continue in the coming quarters. So I avoid that.

Okay, sure. And just on the overall organic growth in the group we're seeing in the quarter here. I mean, you have been talking quite a bit about taking new customers in a weak market over the past year or so. Can you give us any indication of how much is market recovery, or if there is any market recovery in the organic growth figure versus you taking new customers?

We see mainly volume effect in the improvement, and that is driven by mainly good work with market share in some sisters that we think are the main contributor to the organic growth in the quarter. The general market continues to be on a quite cautious level, I would say. As I mentioned in the intro session, the trend continues with really strong demand in some segments and others continue to be on a weak level. So the organic growth is mainly driven by volume and good work on market share.

Yes. Okay. And maybe just finally on the gross margin potential here as well. So you mentioned you expect it to keep seeing a positive development throughout this year. Just sort of with the work you're doing internally and the plans you have in place, is there any reason to expect that, that work will be largely concluded this year or that there is further potential beyond that?

I think what defines our gross margin development is how well we are actually giving value to our customers and lower their total cost and give them value creation. So if Bufab continues to do a good job here, also that should be paying off in the gross margin. But how that will develop, time will tell, but our work here in the different systems to do our best to gradually improve our customers' performance and lower the cost for us then to gradually improve our gross margin. So time will tell how good we're doing this and how much value we create.

Zino Engdalen, welcome to ask your question.

Zino from Handelsbanken. I'd just like to start off on a follow-up to Jonny' question on organic growth in Region West, if it's possible to give any idea around how much of the organic growth that is coming from these previously announced customer orders?

No, we don't disclose any exact number how much is new orders and how much is the rest. So unfortunately, not.

Well, I also needed to try. Going to the comments you made around the freight costs, it sounds like it should have a relatively -- or it sounds like you want to convey the message that it should have a relatively limited impact while you also highlighted that there were cost savings from that in U.K. and Ireland. Is that, so to say, fair to say that the freight cost risk is relatively low?

Yes. I would say that there are 2 different things. If you take the situation in the Middle East that's impacting the supply, here, we see limited impact. And the only impact we've seen on freight then is on air. And luckily, we have a quite small limited air freight in our business. The other part was the lower freight cost in U.K. and Ireland, and that is actually linked to the high freight cost that we had in the comparative quarter in 2025 that was actually standing out. So now we can say we have normalized the level on freight in U.K. and Ireland. So there are 2 separate topics there actually. But all in all, we have seen limited impact on freight for us and our customers. And the main thing we have seen due to the conflict situation is actually on air freight.

Very clear. And I'd also like to follow up on the other big customer projects you announced with Babcock, if there are any. Anything you can disclose there regarding the progress of that contract and how the expectations are for the ramp-up there?

We are doing well with that account. We are continuing building up the support structure for the customer, and we will see gradually positive impact on our net sales with this customer in the coming quarters and years to come. And how fast and how quick it goes, that's always difficult to say in those type of accounts, because it takes two to tango, us and the customer, and also a little bit how their [indiscernible] look like in their production. But good start with the implementation phase, and we expect to see gradually positive impact on our net sales for that region.

Very clear. And just lastly, on capital allocation, given that you highlighted the net debt, that you have a continued appetite for M&A, if there's anything you want to share with regards to platforms or add-ons, or if it's more opportunistic, so to say?

No. We're looking at both. In our strategy, we are looking at 2 types, you can say, acquisitions. We look both at platform acquisitions where we enter a new market or segment, that could be both within trading and niche, and that is bigger players then. And secondly, we're looking at add-on acquisitions where we add on a company that want to contribute into a certain sister somewhere in the world. So we are looking at both and have both type of companies in our pipeline. Okay. Since there are no more questions, I would like to thank you all for attending this meeting and wish you a nice day ahead. Thank you.