Garo Aktiebolag (publ) (GARO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to today's GARO Q4 2020 presentation. My name is Jordan, and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions] I'm now going to hand over to Patrik Andersson to begin. Patrik, please go ahead.

Thank you, Jordan. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of GARO's fourth quarter and full year 2020. My name is Patrik Andersson, and I'm the CEO of GARO. With me today, I have Helena Claesson, our CFO, to present the financial performance. Next slide, please. I will start with a short introduction of the company. GARO was founded 1939, which means that we have been over 80 years in business. We develop and produce innovative products and turnkey solutions for the electrical installation markets. We divide our business into 2 business areas: Sweden, which consists of our Swedish operation; and Other markets, which cover our business in Norway, Ireland, Finland, Poland and in the U.K. We have production on 4 sites, 2 in Gnosjö in Sweden, where we also have our head office; 1 in Värnamo in Sweden; and the fourth site in Szczecin in Poland, and we are approximately about 400 employees in the group. Next slide, please. Product areas. Our business consists of 4 product areas, and on this slide, you can see the different product area's share of the total sales in 2020 compared to the same period last year. Our largest product area, Electrical Distribution Products, which contributes to almost half of our revenues, where we saw a slight decrease during the year, mainly in Other markets; sales within E-mobility accounted for 28% of the total sales, up from 23% in the year earlier; Our product area, Project, had a stable sales in the period, accounting for 20% of the total sales; and Temporary Power decreased and now constitutes about 6% of the business, down 1 percentage point compared to last year. Next slide, please. Operational highlights. Our product area, E-mobility, continues to drive sales with a growth of 39% in the fourth quarter and 24% for the full year. Growth was mainly driven by Sweden, while Other markets also saw an improvement in the last quarter in relation to the full year. The construction-related products area combined had sales in the fourth quarter, which was in line with last year, while 2020 was down 3%. We saw a positive development in Sweden in the last quarter and continued recovery in the Other markets. Although some markets was subdued during the year, it benefits by a high rate of renovation and refurbishments with a high demand for products to improve energy efficiency. As we mentioned before, we incorporated the business area, E-mobility, as of 1st of January this year in order to sharpen the focus, strengthen the organization and to intensify the development activities. Next slide, please. Financial highlights. Group sales increased by 10% in the fourth quarter with a strong growth in both our business areas, Sweden and Other markets. For the full year, we have a growth of 3% in Sweden, while Other markets were in line with last year. GARO could record its best-ever quarter in terms of profitability with an operating margin of 16.2% in the fourth quarter, up from 12.9% in the same period last year. Scale effects from increasing volumes, a positive product mix and a good control of cost are the main explanation to this positive development. We also had a strong cash flow from operating activities amounting to SEK 82.6 million. Our balance sheet is strong with a net debt of SEK 11.3 million, down from SEK 45.6 million last year. The Board of Directors will propose to the AGM to distribute a dividend of SEK 4.75 per share. This is 50% of EPS and in line with our dividend policy. Next slide, please. Sustainability is embedded in our product development. Some key focus areas in 2020 within this area were following. Energy efficiency is essential for meeting the future's climate goals. We have invested significantly in developing smart, energy-efficient products and services for companies and private individuals. Through our digital control and energy efficiency solutions, we can lower the energy consumption. GARO strives to be the leading edge when it comes to digital solutions. For example, we have introduced digital solutions such as QR codes on our products to make product manuals and instruction videos available digitally. This way, we can minimize printed material. Furthermore, our end customers can use some of the products with our various app solutions, providing an energy-efficient usage of our products while also providing increased flexibility for our end users. We have also started a life cycle analysis of our E-mobility products during the year, an analysis that is ongoing and where we are expecting to reach results during Q2. Choice of material is an area that GARO focus on when we are developing new products, choice of materials that are sustainable in all aspects and can cope with the climate where the products are installed and the existing installation conditions. An example of this during the year is our new cable cabinet that we have been made in the sustainable material, manganese. Now over to you, Helena. Next slide, please.

Thank you, Patrik. Let us start by looking at some financial highlights. As Patrik already mentioned, GARO had a seasonally strong fourth quarter, and this is actually our strongest quarter ever, both in terms of sales and operating profit. Net sales increased by 10% to SEK 306 million during the fourth quarter, where the lion's part came from organic growth, driven by E-mobility, but also 1 percent point of added from the acquisition of EV Charge Partner done in June. Operating margins in the quarter came in at 16.2%, leaving an EBIT of almost SEK 50 million. The main reason for our stronger EBIT was positive scale effect from higher volume; favorable product mix, mostly within E-mobility; and tight cost control in general. Net income for the quarter amounted to SEK 34.4 million and for the full year to SEK 95.3 million, which is an increase of 11% compared with the full year of 2019. Overall, in spite of the ongoing pandemic, we have managed to keep us a good business during the full year 2020. Next slide, please. Now looking into net sales by product area. Our largest product area, Electrical Distribution Products, increased by 4% in the quarter, where the growth could be seen both in Sweden and in Other markets. The Project business was down in Sweden but showed significant growth of 34% in Other markets, where we have had some interesting customer projects in Norway and Ireland. The demand of E-mobility continues to be very strong in Sweden and improving in Other markets, and we have seen a good demand across the whole product range. Temporary power continued to have lower sales in Sweden and in line with last year in Other markets, even if it is from lower volumes. Next slide, please. Now looking into the 2 business areas separately, starting with GARO Sweden. Net sales amounted to almost SEK 209 million in the quarter, which is an increase of 11% compared to the same quarter last year. The growth came to the larger extent from E-mobility, which was up with 55%. It is also with joy you will notice an increased demand for our standard components, driven by the sales in E-mobility products. This is a good example of synergy effects between our product groups. Sales of Electrical Distribution products was up by 5% in the quarter compared to the same period last year. The market as such was judged to be unchanged during the fourth quarter compared with the previous year, which indicates that GARO has gained market shares in this area. EBIT increased to SEK 38 million, and margins improved to 18.4%. This is explained by higher sales volumes, favorable product mix and good cost control. Next slide, please. Looking into business area, Other markets. Sales increased by 9% in the quarter, and we saw a continuation of the recovery of sales that started in the third quarter as the markets opened up again after the restrictive measures launched earlier in 2020 to counter the spread of COVID-19. Sales within Electrical Distribution Products and Projects combined were higher in the fourth quarter with strong development in the product area, Project, an increase of 34%, driven by high demand of customized solutions in Norway and Ireland. EBIT margins decreased as a result of our continued investments in business initiatives, which has not yet reached full impact, following the closure of markets due to the pandemic. This regards mainly the U.K. market. Next slide, please. Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 82.6 million compared to SEK 68.9 million in the same quarter last year. This is a result of a stronger EBITDA and lower working capital requirements. In the quarter, we have had investments of SEK 9.5 million, whereof about SEK 8 million were related to investments within product development. We have, as Patrik said, a strong balance sheet with a net debt through December amounting to SEK 11.3 million. We have an equity asset ratio of 57.9%; and available liquidity, including overdraft facilities, of almost SEK 167 million. Now back to you, Patrik. Next slide, please.

Thank you, Helena. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic: we have had limited impact on sales in GARO Sweden from the pandemic, while Other markets continue its positive trend from the third quarter. But increased restriction, primarily in U.K. and in Ireland, have impacted demand negatively. GARO has not applied for or received any financial support from the Swedish Agency for Economic or Regional Growth as a result of COVID-19. Next slide, please. Strong growth and development opportunities. Here, our strategy remains the same. The main driver of the growth will be organic growth. A successful product development has been and will continue to be the key of this growth. On top of this, we are always looking for potential acquisitions, where we can add either new or additional products, product areas or companies with an edge. An example of this is the acquisition of EV Charge Partner, which we announced May 15 last year, to strengthen our offer in the E-mobility business. We are also looking at new geographical markets, which are focused mainly of northern parts of Europe. Next slide, please. Outlook. The market conditions are stable in Sweden and in Other markets. On long term, beyond the COVID-19 virus, our assessment of the core market conditions has not changed. However, great uncertainty prevails due to the COVID-19's long-term consequences on the economy. The market for E-mobility is growing structurally, and we see a continuing strong trend with further expansion of the charging infrastructure in all markets. Thank you, everyone, for listening to the presentation of the fourth quarter and full year 2020. Now me and Helena are ready for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ofelia Aspemyr of ABG.

Ofelia Aspemyr from ABG. I wonder if you could please elaborate on and describe further the upcoming incorporation of the E-mobility business area.

The incorporation, yes. The reason for that is, of course, to make this as our own company, to strengthen the focus on this area, to strengthen the organization and to increase the activities, as we said, for development of products. So that's the key focus because we have done this before with the Project business as we made our own company in 2004 and also for the Temporary power in 2007 to make full focus on the organization. So that's the main reason for that.

Okay. And during 2020, operated a quite tight control. Should we see this as something temporary? Or do you expect it to continue into 2021?

You think about the margin?

No. The cost control.

Yes. Of course, we are looking on the cost control every year and to increase in a good level and have the cost control during that increase. So of course, we will always look how to spend our money. And of course, we see some changes here because if you can see, during the year, we haven't had any exhibitions, for example, but we have invested in digital solutions instead. So of course, during 2021, we will invest in different things, so to say. But we will, during the year, also have good cost control, and we have always had in the company. So we will continue with that.

Okay. And last question, I wonder if you can say something about the size or the revenue within your subsegments. And then I mean the home chargers, the semi-fast chargers and the fast chargers.

I don't have the direct numbers of that, but we can say so much that we have, of course, a good increase in the wallbox segment, but I don't have the clear numbers of that. But wallboxes is increasing a lot for the wheelers and that type of installations.

Our next question comes from Kenneth Toll of Carnegie.

So I was wondering, you have a very strong balance sheet, and you put up a slide where you sort of described your strategy for growing going forward. But do you see any major expansion projects in terms of expanding plants or opening new sales office or something that could require some capital? Or are you hunting more aggressively for acquisitions?

Of course, we are looking at interesting acquisition, and we have done that since we come to the stock market since 2016, and we have a team working with that. And of course, as we said, we are interested in new markets. We are interesting in technology companies. And so we are open for acquisitions, so to speak.