Lindab International AB (publ) (LIAB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Lindab Group Q2 Presentation for 2026. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the President and CEO, Ola Ringdahl; and CFO, Lars Ynner. Please go ahead.

Hello, and welcome to this presentation of Lindab Group's report for the second quarter. I'm Ola Ringdahl, President and CEO of Lindab Group. And next to me, I have our CFO, Lars Ynner. We will begin by presenting the results for the quarter and then move over to our focus on profitable growth and an outlook. Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. Let's begin with some highlights. For the group in total, sales increased, and we returned to organic growth. Margins came under pressure during the quarter, and I will come back to that later in the presentation. After a weak start of the year for Profile Systems, we can see an improvement in the second quarter with increased sales in comparable units. Let's take a closer look at our sales development. Sales in April and May was slower than anticipated, but sales in June was strong. The group increased net sales by 2% in the quarter. For business area Ventilation Systems, net sales increased by 2%, and the organic growth was flat. Sales development differed between geographies. In the Nordics, sales development was strong, primarily thanks to solid performance in the Swedish market with a double-digit sales increase in the quarter. Sales in Western Europe was disappointing with a 4% decline in comparable units. Profile Systems reached 5% organic growth in the quarter, a very welcome positive sign after many tough quarters. After the divestment of our operations in Romania, Profile Systems is now focused on the Scandinavian markets. In previous updates, we have mentioned that the sandwich panel business has struggled to reach satisfactory production output after the factory relocation in the beginning of 2025. I'm pleased to say that we are getting back on track. We have operational stability and sales levels are now approaching those seen before the factory relocation. Now let's move over to operating profit. Lindab's profitability came under pressure during the quarter. Adjusted operating margin for the group was 6.6% compared to 8.6% for the second quarter last year. An important reason was that the costs for transportation and input materials increased because of disruptions caused by the geopolitical situation. This affected both business areas. Also, profitability declined in our ventilation businesses in Germany, France and the Netherlands, where we see weak demand and strong price competition. To strengthen profitability, price increases and action plans for both business areas are being implemented. Now I hand over to our CFO, Lars Ynner, who will present the cash flow development.

Thank you, Ola. Lindab Group delivered a cash flow from operating activities of SEK 275 million in the second quarter, corresponding to a cash conversion of 97%. Net debt increased to SEK 4.497 billion, which is in line with last year. Our target for net debt to EBITDA is that it should be below 3x. In Q2, the ratio remained stable versus last year at 2.7. The financial net debt-to-EBITDA ratio increased to 2.3 versus 2.1 last year. Ola, now back to you.

Thank you, Lars. As mentioned earlier, profitability has been affected by disruptions caused by the geopolitical situation. This has led to significantly higher costs for transportation and for input materials during the second quarter. Price adjustments have been implemented to mitigate these cost increases. However, we have not yet been able to fully compensate during this quarter, which has put pressure on the gross margin. Our ambition is to fully offset the higher costs in the coming months. Let's continue to the next section. Let me now share some examples of how we are developing our business with a focus on profitable growth. Since 2020, Lindab has made a large number of acquisitions of well-run companies that can grow our business and strengthen our position in the market. Earlier this week, we announced a bolt-on acquisition in Ireland. CVS is a small ventilation distributor in the Western part of Ireland, where we aim to double our sales over the next 3 years in that part of the country. Our current business in Ireland is very successful and with the acquisition of CVS, we have the opportunity to benefit from the high construction activity in the western part of the country. In June, we divested our operations in Romania. This completes the exit from Eastern Europe for business area Profile Systems, who can now fully focus on the Scandinavian markets. In the near-term, we see many interesting growth opportunities, and I would like to mention some of them. We still see a capacity for bolt-on acquisitions of well-run ventilation companies, and we are in several interesting dialogues at the moment. Our market-leading position in ventilation ducts in Europe is gradually supplemented by a stronger position in technical ventilation, where specifiers such as technical consultants, property owners and architects are important decision-makers. Fire and smoke protection systems is a good example of a ventilation product category with very specific technical demands and certifications. We have seen double-digit growth for this product category during the past 12 months. With the acquisition of Airmaster, we have established a strong position in decentralized ventilation. Step by step, we are expanding the sales channels for Airmaster to more geographies supported by the Lindab Group network, creating clear synergies. Finally, there are interesting pockets of growth in, for example, data centers and the defense sector, where Lindab aims to be an important supplier. Now let's move to the market outlook. We continue to see significant geopolitical uncertainty, so making a market outlook is pretty hard at the moment. The forecast for the European construction market from Euroconstruct has been revised down slightly for 2026 and '27. We believe that the geopolitical situation and the conflict in the Middle East are delaying the market recovery. For the European ventilation market, our assessment is that it will be relatively flat during the rest of '26 with prospects for some growth in 2027. The markets in Northern and Eastern Europe are projected to recover faster. However, Western Europe is lagging behind when it comes to new construction projects. For Profile Systems, which primarily now operates in Scandinavia, there are some positive signs, and we assess that the market is stabilizing during this year with prospects for growth in 2027. In the medium- and long-term, we have a positive market outlook. Our ventilation systems provide energy savings for buildings and help to create a healthy indoor climate. Thanks to efficiency measures and our implemented investment program, we have a solid platform for profitability when market demand starts to increase. That concludes this presentation. And Lars and I are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Lara Mohtadi from ABG Sundal Collier.

Just a couple of questions from me. You said that the ambition is to fully offset the higher costs in -- from transportation, et cetera, in the coming months. Should we read that as the gross margin gap still being visible in Q3 and maybe largely closing in Q4? That's my first question.

Thank you, Lara. We see that the cost increases, they came pretty fast because of this external shock related to the conflict in the Middle East. So energy cost, fuel prices, et cetera, they were rising quickly, and it did not give us enough time to react and get full impact of price increases. Will we be able to fully compensate during the third quarter? It's a question mark for me. We aim to do it, but there are risks that we will not be able to fully close that gap in the third quarter. I have to admit that there is uncertainty, especially in the countries where the demand is weak, primarily in, say, Western Europe, getting full impact of the price increases in a tough market with strong price competition is hard at the moment. We need to balance volume versus gross margin. It's a tricky act. We, of course, need to make sure we protect market share and keep good levels of productivity in our factories, while at the same time, try to protect and gradually increase our gross margins. Rather difficult at the moment. But as I said, we aim to fully compensate for it, but it can take a few more months.

Very clear. You briefly touched on this now when you answered your question, but in weaker markets such as Germany, France and the Netherlands, how are you thinking about the trade-off between sort of defending volumes versus protecting price while the market stays weak?

We need to be, say, long-term in our -- in how we act. We cannot say goodbye to customers who we have served for a long time because we are too rigid on pricing. That is one important thing. But of course, we still need to do everything we can to compensate for these cost increases that we have. It is a difficult situation for our sales organizations to find that balance. We want to keep our customers. We want to protect our market shares, and we want to compensate and protect our gross margin. That is especially difficult in the countries mentioned where the markets are clearly lacking volume and where the suppliers want to, let's say, fight to catch the volume that exists. That is one reason why we have a gross margin pressure in those countries.

Just on the ventilation margin, it came down to 7.8%. Can you maybe just help us understand -- obviously, you mentioned the higher transport costs, et cetera. But could you just make us -- help us understand the main moving parts, maybe mix price versus transport costs?

I think if we look at the group's gross margin, we lose roughly 1 percentage point on gross margin, and that is approximately true also for business area Ventilation Systems. That is where one key reason sits. The second one, as we point out in the report, is that our performance in Germany, Netherlands and France is not good enough, not strong enough. We are losing operating profit in those 3 countries specifically, and that's the other half of the impact for Ventilation Systems. So 2 different parts. One is, say, cost inflation and the second one is lack of the desired performance in those 3 countries.

Just a final one from my end. You did a small acquisition you announced it this quarter. I mean, your net debt-to-EBITDA is moving towards the 3x ceiling. How much headroom do you sort of see for bolt-ons this year? Or do you think that the leverage level maybe constrains the size of what you consider? What should we sort of expect in terms of acquisitions going into this year -- for the rest of the year?

We depend -- I mean, as you point out, we have a net debt-to-EBITDA situation. Priority one for us is to strengthen EBITDA so that we create space for more acquisitions. Then we, of course, depend on continued generation of strong cash flows. I think our cash conversion in Q2 was strong after a less strong Q1. It is a top priority for us to strengthen EBITDA and ensure a good cash conversion and cash flow. We can finance additional bolt-on acquisitions.