Karnell Group AB (publ) (KARNELB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, again, and welcome to Karnell's Q1 2025 Earnings Presentation. I am Petter Moldenius, CEO of Karnell. And with me today, I have our CFO, Lars Neret, and we will be walking you through our financial performance for the quarter and discussing our strategic initiatives and providing insights into our recent acquisitions. And this is what we'll have lined up for you today. I'll start with a brief introduction to our Q1 report. Lars will then give you more details around our business units and our financial performance. I will then give you a short introduction to our acquisition, Mannisto, even though we talked about it during the last call, it happened during Q1. And then we'll talk about Warwick SASCo that was acquired on the 1st of April. We'll reserve some time at the end for presentations and a Q&A session. As I mentioned during the last call, we have decided to slim down the presentation as we believe many of you know us well, but we are also happy to have introductionary call with institutional investors. So just contact us at [email protected] to reach out. In short, Karnell is an active and long-term owner of industrial technology companies, focusing on acquiring small- to medium-sized companies with strong position in niche markets. We have a disciplined acquisition strategy, prioritizing quality and industrial leadership. As of now, Karnell comprises of 17 companies across Finland, Sweden and the U.K., employing approximately 700 people. We strive for transparency, even though it means sharing numbers that may sting in the short term, we believe it's beneficial for Karnell and our shareholders in the long term. And with that, let's turn to our Q1. Karnell delivered a strong performance in the first quarter of 2025 despite the continued macroeconomic uncertainty. The first quarter is typically our seasonality weakest, which makes the broader-based organic growth we achieved across the group particularly encouraging. Both revenue and EBITA increased at group level with all business units organically contributing positively. During the first quarter, net sales increased by 26% year-on-year to SEK 359 million. And organically, revenues grew by 8%, which we view as a solid result given the market condition. EBITA amounted to the SEK 38 million, an increase of 92% year-on-year with an organic increase of 42.9%. However, this comparison is influenced by IPO costs that we had during Q1 last year. So a better comparison is to focus solely on the underlying operational performance of our subsidiaries. And then the group organic EBITA increased by 5.9 percentage points. And we think that this more accurately reflects the resilience of our portfolio companies and the strength of the decentralized operating model that we have. Our cash flow amounted to SEK 13 million during the quarter, and Lars will give you more details later on. But I can conclude that our gearing continues to be at 1.0, and that is continued low levels which also gives us ample headroom to continue our expansion through selective acquisitions. Taking the longer view here that you can see on the left side, we can see on a 12-month running basis that we are improving our EBITA margin by 0.7 percentage points versus Q4. And with that, we are leaving the cost incurred during the IPO behind us. The quarter started somewhat soft with January showing lower activities followed by a stable February and a strong March, resulting in a solid and a steady quarter overall. Our Product companies continued their strong performance, benefiting from improved market stability and clearer demand outlooks. While it may be too early to speak of sustained return to structural growth, we have seen encouraging signs to that point of a more positively underlying trend. In Niche production, demand was stronger than in the same period last year. The market now appears to be more stable, and we expect activity to normalize compared to the weaker 2024. And with that, I'll hand over to Lars, who will walk you through the financials more in detail.

Thank you, Petter. If we then look a little further into Q1 and start with a breakdown of net sales on the left here, the total increase was 26%, of which organic growth was 8%. And as Petter mentioned, we saw a little softer market in the beginning of the quarter, but more activity at the end of the quarter for both business areas. Acquisitions represented 20% of the growth and currency effects were negative 2% in this quarter. EBITA increased by 92% with an organic growth of 43% and most of that increase was due to the high cost relating to the IPO that we had last year. So if we exclude the central costs and only account for our 2 business segments, we had a combined organic growth of 6%. Acquisitions accounted for 53% of the growth and currency effects were a negative 4%. The EBITA margin increased from 7.0% last year to 10.7% this quarter. Over to our business segments and starting with our Product owning companies. We had again a strong quarter with an increase in sales of 47% to SEK 173 million. Most of that came from acquisitions, but we also had a strong organic growth of 17%. EBITA increased by 54% to SEK 18 million, and most of that also came from acquisitions, but at the same time, we had a strong organic growth of 6%. EBITA margin improved from 9.7% last year to 10.2% this year. And our Product companies continued with a strong quarter where almost all companies performed better with higher sales and stable margins. And we now also see contribution from markets that had previously been a little softer, such as the construction sector in Finland. For our Niche manufacturers, sales increased by 11% to SEK 186 million. The increase came mostly from acquisitions, but we also had an organic growth of 1%. EBITA increased by 25% to SEK 31 million. And here, we had an organic growth of 6%. The EBITA margin increased from 14.9% last year to 16.8% this year. And as Petter mentioned, also, we had -- our Niche manufacturers had a stable start to the year with increased sales and increased margins compared to last year. And the markets still show a little lower activity, but it's looking to stabilize and we expect that to continue. Moving on to cash flow, and our cash flow from operating activities increased by 28% on a 12-month rolling basis from last year. And for the quarter, it increased by 8%. And this increase is fully due to higher profits. But due to the higher activity at the end of the quarter, we have seen an increase in working capital and especially then accounts receivable, which reduces the cash flow somewhat. On to our capital structure and net debt. So we made one acquisition, Mannisto, during the quarter, which caused our net debt to increase somewhat to SEK 229 million at the end of the quarter. And this is, as usual, excluding IFRS leasing. And we still maintain a low leverage of 1.0x. And here, in the table on the right here, you see the leasing debt and also the earn-out and put/call debt that we had on our balance sheet. And if we include these liabilities as well, we have a leverage of 2.1x at the end of Q1. And as you have seen in our report, we have now added this KPI to our published reports as well. Back to you, Petter.

Thank you. Yes, Mannisto. Again, we already showed this during Q4 presentation, but as the transaction happened in Q1, we thought it's worth to reiterate and mention it again. Mannisto was founded 1955 in Rauma in Finland. It's a family-owned business with annual sales of approximately EUR 6 million and strong profitability. They specializes in pipe support systems for the marine industry and also have proprietary products for HVAC and insulation application. As with all our acquisitions, our goal is to support Mannisto's growth while preserving its core values and expertise. This exemplifies our strategy of acquiring and developing family-owned niche industrial companies with strong market positions with healthy profitability. Now to our most recent acquisition, Warwick SASCo, and we closed that the first day of April. It marks our entry into the medical sector. The company is based in the U.K. and specializes in reusable special plastic products for hospital decontamination surgery rooms, nursing and general patient care. This includes items like instrument trays, gallipots, kidney dishes and autoclave safe containers that you can see to the right here. These products are certified with EU MDR standards. And Warwick SASCo has built a strong international reputation with exports to over 60 countries and a global customer base of medical distributors. The company is well positioned to benefit from the ongoing environmental and regulatory shifts that are phasing out disposable plastic products in favor of high-quality reusable alternatives. This is a family-owned business founded in 1981 by the father of the current CEO, Darby Booth, who will remain in his role following the acquisition. And we have acquired 90.1% of the shares with an option for full ownership in the future. The selling shareholders retain 9.9%, ensuring continuity and deep domain expertise also going forward. We see the business as a niche leader in its field with a strong brand recognition and quality -- high-quality products. From a strategic perspective, the acquisition strengthens our Product companies segment and gives us exposure to the health care supply chain, a sector with attractive, long-term dynamics and consistent demand. It is also fully aligned with our strategy of acquiring family-led export-driven business with specialized product offering and room for operational development. Good. And to wrap up, Q1 2025 Karnell delivered a strong performance. And despite the continued macroeconomic uncertainty that we see, the first quarter is, again, typically our seasonality is weakest, which makes the broad-based organic growth we achieved across the group particularly encouraging. Across the broader markets, we are seeing early signs of stabilization with interest rates gradually easing. However, global uncertainty remains elevated, driven by geopolitical risks, including potential trade tensions and tariff developments linked to the U.S. political landscape. While Karnell's direct exposure to the U.S. is minimal, we remain attentive to potential knock-on effects on supply chains and pricing globally. And looking ahead, we remain cautiously optimistic with a strong balance sheet and continued financial flexibility. We are focused on operational excellency and disciplined growth. We are actively developing our pipeline of attractive M&A opportunities while supporting our companies and driving sustainable long-term value for our shareholders. And with that, I would like to open the floor to any questions that you may have.

[Operator Instructions] First caller is Max Bacco at SEB.

I hope you can hear me. Nice to see a strong start to 2025 here. Well done, both of you, Petter and Lars. So a couple of questions from my side, if that's all right. Perhaps starting with the segments. If we take the Niche production segment, seems to be very nice profitability improvement, both driven organically, but also through acquisitions that you have done. So perhaps if you have any comments on the organic improvement in profitability compared to Q1 last year, what has driven that? Given that organic top line is quite flat, but organic earnings are up, what have you seen during the quarter?

It's difficult to give you any specifics, but I would say that in general, 2024 was a somewhat weaker year for our Niche manufacturing companies overall. And that started already in Q1 last year. And I think especially, sort of backing even further, I think there was the development of sort of weaker demand and high level of uncertainty at the end of '23 going into '24. As we mentioned, there is still a rather high level of uncertainty in the market and a little bit of wait-and-see feeling due to the political landscape in the U.S. and the potential impacts of tariffs. But with that said, I think, again, we've seen a more stable demand during Q1 now than we have had seen during the full year of 2024.

Okay. Have you -- I guess, perhaps a bit early to say, but here during Q1, have you seen some improvements in like the customer mix with some of the more high profitability customers coming back after a softer H2 '24? Or -- well, once again, perhaps a bit early to say.

Yes, it's a bit early to say. But what we can say is that we continue to work very proactively finding new customers for all our entities, and that's also giving results to top line, but also margin.

Okay. Understood. And then moving towards the other segment, the Product companies. I mean, really strong organic sales growth of 17% here year-over-year, while earnings still very good, but not at the same level, plus 6% organically year-over-year. So a bit lower margin underlying versus Q1 last year. Is it, I guess, some mix effect, some of the lower-margin companies growing faster or something like that, if you have any comments on that?

Yes. That is a fair assessment. I think during Q1 last year in the Product area, we had -- we were suffering to some extent. We -- Lars mentioned it, the construction market in Finland. We also had a long winter in Q1 last year that we haven't seen this year, which hits us differently across the companies as we have different exposures. But overall, more or less all the companies are experiencing a better Q1 than last year's. So no one to mention specifically.

I can just add that Q1 last year was extremely good. So we had -- a bunch of our companies had record margins last year and maybe they have more normalized this year. And further to the mix then since Q1 is our weakest quarter and especially for the Product companies segment, we have some companies that are making losses and close to 0 results for Q1. So even small changes up and down have large effects on the percentages.

Okay. Understood. And then perhaps the next question here to you, Lars. As you mentioned, quite large net working capital buildup here during the quarter of some SEK 27 million in total, which, I mean, the preparation ahead of high season and of course, very good top line growth, which explains it. But do you see possibility to release some net working capital here during the remainder of 2025 to support the cash flow?

Yes, we do, absolutely. So much of the buildup -- some of the buildup is, of course, natural in Q1, there's a lot of inventory buildup for release in Q2. And then we had some strong performance in March, which built up a larger-than-normal account receivable amount. So that, of course, we expect to be released in the coming quarters here, yes.

Okay. Perfect. And that leads us to my last question. As you said, I mean, quite soft start to the quarter, but a strong March, which sounds a bit like normal seasonality, I guess. But was it more than that? Have you seen any indications that demand actually improved? Or was it more in line with normal seasonality that Q1 picks up gradually? And perhaps if you have any comments on the start of Q2 with April, if it has continued in line with March?

So I think it was a bit of a different pattern than we've seen before, mainly due to the long-extended holiday season that was during December that also spilled over, I would say, into January. So I think, again, it's difficult to be empirical about it, but that's the feeling we have from January that took time for the markets to recover after a longer period of holiday season this year. I think -- but then again, February was a bit more normal on the weak side, but activity increased. And as we don't really go into specifics about the Q2 reports, we can only say that March ended on a strong note.

There are no further questions.

Good. Thank you all for listening in. And by that, we conclude today's presentation. And again, for institutional investors that don't know us that well, please reach out to us, and we can give you a bit more introduction to who we are and our detailed strategic outline, how we work. But with that, thank you very much, and have a good day.