Ratos AB (publ) (RATOB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ratos Interim Report January to September 2020. Today, I'm pleased to present Jonas Wiström. [Operator Instructions] Speakers, please begin.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's telephone conference where Ratos' CEO, Jonas Wiström; and CFO, Jonas Ågrup, will present Ratos report for the third quarter in 2020. After the presentation, a Q&A session will follow. A recorded version of the telephone conference will be published on our website after the call. With that said, I'll leave the word over to Jonas Wiström.

Thank you, Helene. And good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining this call. Well, it's raining outside here in Stockholm. But actually, in Ratos, the sun is shining. I think we have the best quarter so far in Ratos during my time and as far back as I can look. During the quarter, the EBITA grew with 28%; rolling 12 months, 60%. Our cash flow is much stronger. Our leverage is down significantly from 3x to 1.4x. I think all companies, except the LEDiL, is in a positive trend. Corona effects has been diminishing in the quarter. And the company, who had the strongest tailwind from corona, Plantasjen, is growing 11%, which is a growth -- good growth number. But compared to 25% in Q2, it's, of course, lower growth. But Plantasjen, I think, is the company I'm most proud of in this quarter because their sales is up SEK 77 million, and their EBITA is at SEK 89 million, and I'm coming back to the reasons why Plantasjen has been so much more profitable for sales later on in the presentation. So now let us move over to the next slide, where we comment the quarter. The net sales is up just 1%, I say. The reason for that the growth phase is down is basically Aibel and HENT. I'm coming back to the reasons for that. But Aibel is in an earlier phase in their project portfolio compared to last year. The net sales is affected negatively from the currency and so is the EBITA, both with 6%. The cash flow, again, is much stronger, of course, better earnings, but also, to a great extent, increased focus on working capital. The improvement was foremost driven by Diab; HENT; HL Display; and again, Plantasjen. This makes our financial position much stronger. I could claim that we have a toe-low leverage today, which puts us in a good position for next step in our growth journey. It's down to 1.4x, as I commented in my introduction. And today, I believe that the Extraordinary General Meeting, we'll decide to reinstate the dividend of SEK 0.65. Ratos will repay the governmental grants that has been received in Sweden related to the COVID-19 situation. Let's move to next slide where we are looking at the Ratos Group, including our headquarter and transactions in the mother company. Well, the operating profit is lower than last year because, last year, we divested our property here. If we adjust for that and the fact that we have had some costs for Bisnode transaction and some changes in staff, the result operating profit for the group is actually up 25%. The adjusted number is SEK 431 million compared -- SEK 431 million this year compared to SEK 345 million last year. So it's also a very good result in the Ratos Group. And if we look at the earnings per share, that it's actually up from SEK 0.18 to SEK 0.64. So good -- very good growth in earnings per share. Again, excluding the divestment of the real estate and if we look at the profit after tax, we also have some SEK 100 million in costs for the divestments in Bisnode, due to revaluation of financial instruments in the Bisnode Group. We got a much better price for the divestment than we thought. So good news also for the Ratos Group. So now let's move over to the COVID pandemic, which we unfortunately continue to talk about all over the world. First of all, the impact in the third quarter was minor. I would estimate it to a negative effect of some SEK 50 million. It's hard, of course, to have an exact number on this. Government support amounted to approximately SEK 24 million, which we would pay back. Negative impact from COVID, mainly in Aibel and LEDiL. LEDiL is the company in the group that has had the hardest hit from corona. Bisnode, Diab, HENT, HL Display and TFS are all affected also by COVID, where -- but the negative impact in our team and KVD and Speed is very small. And we have a positive impact in Oase and Plantasjen, although it's smaller than it was in -- than in Q2. Again, we focus on health, safety and liquidity and EBITA in that order. I must say I continue to be impressed by the way the management teams in our companies has handed the pandemic so far. So with that, I would like to hand over to my dear CFO, Jonas, to talk about the leverage.

Thank you very much. So we move to Slide #5, and we look at the leverage. And if we look at leverage level in Q3, it continued to decrease in the quarter, and we ended up at 1.4x. That was down 53% compared to the same quarter last year. And if we look at some of the portfolio companies, we saw a good leverage levels in, for example, Diab at 2.5x in the quarter; HL Display was at 1.1x; and Plantasjen, where we have seen very high levels in the past, we were down at 3.7x in the third quarter this year. If we look at the leverage and also include the effect of IFRS 16, we were at 2.5x in the third quarter this year. We saw good cash flow, operating good -- operating cash flow in most of the portfolio companies in the quarter. And coming back to Plantasjen, where we have seen a very good performance, we saw lower leverage, as I said, and we saw improved EBITDA in the quarter, improved cash flow with compared to the same quarter last year and we also have a solid cash position in the company. If we look at Ratos AB, we have net cash position, roughly SEK 1.2 billion. And we also have, in addition to that, a loan facility of SEK 1 billion, which was unutilized in the end of the quarter. So I move back to you then, Jonas.

Thank you. Thank you, Jonas. Then let's take a look into our company group, and starting with Construction & Services. Aibel. Aibel is down 6% in sales and even more in EBITA. COVID is affecting Aibel, but the real -- the main reason, I should say, for lower numbers is that the large projects in the project portfolio is in an earlier phase than last year. We've seen the results successively gradually being better for each quarter, and I expect this trend to continue. The backlog of orders at the end of the third quarter is roughly NOK 13 billion, and 40% is related to wind and electrification of offshore platforms. So Aibel, positive trend there. Our team, a great improvement in sales and in EBITA. I'm very happy with the development of this company. Denmark has always been strong. It's even stronger now, but it's also satisfying to see the Swedish operations is improving, both from profit level and profitability level. HENT. Activity at the construction sites are continued to be constrained through COVID-19. Sales is more or less flat. EBITA for this period was impacted positively by a release of provisions for bad debt. I think it was roughly SEK 9 million, affecting the result positively. Cash flow was positive during the period, and the management continue to have focus on liquidity for HENT, which is very strong. Impressed by Speed Group, great improvement of operating profit. We used to talk about the turnaround program we had in Q2 2019. Well, that is no longer in the numbers. So the profit increase that has been done here is actually efficiency measures implemented after this program. Upon this positive increase of both profit and profitability, a new -- a very important contract, long-term contract was signed with an existing client during the quarter. So operations feel very stable in Speed Group. Let's move over to Consumer & Technology. I'm not going to talk so much about Bisnode, other than to say sales was affected by COVID-19 as the marketing solution, especially it was negatively affected by COVID-19. Credit and risk is doing well. And they also secured a number of good contracts in credit and risk during the quarter. KVD sales increased 4%. We saw a positive trend in the second half of the quarter with a higher inflow of cars. So continued good development in KVD. Oase Outdoors, again, a company that has been, actually in the third quarter and also during the second half of the second quarter, positively affected by COVID-19. There is an increasing interest in camping and outdoor life, and this is the reason -- the main reason they also introduced a new platform last year, a new generation of temps. But this, together with the increased interest in outdoor life, has boosted the sales, 34% up, profit up also significantly. And coming back to Plantasjen, growing 11%. But Plantasjen has been a much more efficient company than it was just a quarter ago or 2 quarters ago. We divested, as you remember, Spira, but we have also lower costs for logistics. We have lower staff expenses and other costs, and we have increased gross margins. So EBITA is actually growing in millions faster than sales is, and that's a very good performance of the management team and all the employees in Plantasjen. With that, coming over to business area industry, starting up with Diab, continue to grow very strong. Diab has increased production capacity, especially in the material PET. We have a good demand in wind, especially in China. And with the new production of PET, we're gaining market share in this segment. We have earlier said that the Marine segment and the Aerospace segment is very weak. Well, in this quarter, the Marine segment noted signs of recovery actually during the quarter where Aerospace still is slow. I think we're down 90% or so in Aerospace. HL Display, a company that also is negatively affected by COVID, net sales decreased. Organic sales decreased with 2%. But despite the lower net sales, both EBITA and EBITA margin were strengthened, not the least to good efficiency and flexibility in the production and continued good cost control and a good product mix. I'm happy to repeat how impressed I am about the different production facility when it comes to cost efficiency and flexibility during these difficult times. LEDiL. Net sales declined by 22% during the quarter. This is a company that is affected the most from COVID-19. It's impressive that they still, with this decrease, can do a profit margin around 20% in the company. We see signs of recovery in the order intake during the third quarter. Last but not least, TFS. We implemented a real cutting -- cost-cutting program in the last quarter last year, first quarter this year. This has had a great effect on the EBITDA, but the Q3 result is also boosted by release of provisions in projects that now are finalized. TFS has had a hard time with corona, with difficult to get access to clinical trials in hospitals, but this looks a little bit better now in Q3. So all in all, we're very happy with the Q3 results, 9 of 12 companies showing EBITA improvement. But as I said initially, I think it's only LEDiL that are really suffering now and is still in the negative earnings trend this year. We have increased cash flow in most of our companies, and our financial position is much stronger. We're reinstating the dividend. And last but not least, after the end of the period, we signed an agreement to divest our holding in Bisnode. And this is a very, very important step for Ratos Group coming forward. First, we have reduced a lot of risk, divesting Bisnode. We were strongly dependent on Dun & Bradstreet goodwill to keep on having us as a reseller. Secondly, it gives us cash to start our growth journey and our 5-year plan that we will come back to when we will do add-on acquisitions, creating synergies, maybe also acquire new companies that have a relation to our present group of companies. So we feel happy we have a strong financial position, and we have a company group that is more stable than ever. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And operator, now we would like to open up for potential questions, please.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Derek Laliberte from ABG.

I was wondering if you could provide a bit more color on the outlook here, given that you have taken quite a few measures with regards to costs and efficiency improvements, boosting the margin here. I think how much do you think sales can grow next year? And how much further potential do you see in the group EBITA margin? And also, how are you thinking about your preparedness if this second wave of the virus turns out to be quite severe?

Good morning, Derek. That was a number of questions. We decided not to give outlook, but I can say that we -- I think we benchmark our companies versus their peers. And for us, a good profitability is if you have a better profitability than your peers. We are not there yet. We are there with 2 companies, but we will continue to improve gross margins -- sorry, EBITA margins, and we will continue to drive organic growth. The new thing is that we will also start to focus on acquisitions for those companies who have a good platform for that, a good platform in terms of stability and profitability. It's very important to have this platform when you're bringing in new companies. And we have a number of companies who has reached that position even though they're not yet profit-leading in their peer group. When it comes to COVID-19, yes, there are worries for a second wave. And we are still in COVID-19 mode in Ratos AB, where we do liquidity forecasts every second week, where they do the same in all group companies. And I'm -- I've been very impressed by the measures taken in the COVID pandemic. So I think we're very well prepared for a possible second wave.

That's very clear. And just to follow up on the focus going forward here, given the strong financial position, especially after the completion of the Bisnode transaction. You already mentioned this that it's -- you're going to focus more on acquisitions. But when it comes to any potential new acquisitions, are you focusing on any specific sectors here? I know that you have some sectors for your existing holdings already, but they are quite broad. So is there any specific focus here?

No, not really. But of course, we want -- if we do potential new companies coming into the group, we -- I'm almost certain that they will have a relation to our other companies in the group. But again, the add-on acquisitions is the main focus.

That's very clear. And then my question on the dividend here. It's mainly, I guess, a technical lumber question, and maybe it doesn't really matter, but you came out with the reinstated dividend for 2019. I was just sort of wondering how that is possible given that sort of the -- I'm not sure about the English term, but the funds are balanced as of 30th of June. So I would think that, that dividend should be placed on 2020 rather than 2019. I'm not an accounting expert, but wondering if you have any comments on that.

No, I have to admit that I'm not accounting expertise in that case. Now this is the dividend for 2019, and we communicated in the spring that we would come back with a decision if we should release the dividend or not. So that was communicated in April or May, I can't remember. And we did come back, as we said. And since we have this strong development of the Ratos Group, the Board decided to recommend that and especially as we paid back the support for furloughs that we have received in Sweden.

All right. And just finally, on LEDiL, you mentioned that you are seeing signs of recovery with an improved order book. Also seem to notice with LEDiL that the market growth seems to have come down rather quickly. Do you know -- or why is this? What's going on in this market for secondary optics?

A good question there, again, Derek. I don't think it's only market down for secondary optics, but also for Luminars and the whole lighting industry has been affected by COVID-19, and that is mainly in the indoor lighting projects. They don't want to perform that in the COVID-19 times. Exterior lighting like street lighting, et cetera, has not weakened so much, but the indoor part has been down, not only for secondary lighting, but really also for the clients of LEDiL.

Our next question comes from Mikael Löfdahl from Carnegie.

Just one sort of broader-level question here. Given what you have experienced now during the pandemic, but also before that, maybe that some of the holdings have had a bit too much leverage, how -- now that you will eventually put the Bisnode money in play, how will you reason when it comes to leverage in new acquisitions?

Mikael, it's a very good question. I don't really want to say that our step 1 is over because we will sort of continue to work with the profitability, as I mentioned. But we are shifting. We are shifting step now into step 2, where we will focus on acquisitions. It's a tough thing because you need to make good acquisitions. And it's very hard to plan that in March, we should do -- we get the money probably in January next year. So we are discussing a financial targets in the Board of Directors about what kind of leverage should de Ratos Group has. And there is no -- we will release those numbers later this year, but I think I can say that we want to be a net debt group. So -- and we think -- or I think, I should say, that leverage with 1.4x, excluding the leases, is a 2 leverage. So maybe around -- between 1.5, 2.5, something like that, but we will communicate that later. And that is, of course, an overtime target. I mean we will be -- have a lower leverage for some times and a higher leverage maybe after on acquisitions. But that's the kind of guiding I can give you right now.

Okay. Then on the Bisnode transaction, maybe I have missed some information somewhere. But could you say something about what could -- I mean, obviously, the deal will probably not be closed until Q1, and there's competition authorities that has saying and so on. But can the financial pieces of the transaction change in any way, depending on how Dun & Bradstreet performs, how that share price performs, for instance, or the Bisnode operational performance? And also touching on that regarding Dun & Bradstreet, the 25% of the payment you will receive in the shares, how -- is that a fixed number of shares? Or can that change?

Well, the last question, is it it's a fixed number of shares? Yes, it is. And the number of shares were decided -- was it 14 days before signing the FDA. I'm not sure of the number of days here, Mikael. But it's a fixed number, it was decided on the share price, the nearest time before the SPA was signed. Your first question, well, the FDA is signed. And if the compensation authorities approve this, which we very much believe, that's the only thing that this deal is about. We are happy, and we look forward to incorporate now even closer with Dun & Bradstreet. I will take part in their Advisory Board for Europe. We believe there are massive synergies, both on the revenue side, but also on the cost side with this deal. So we think this is a good investment, and we like what Dun & Bradstreet are doing. I've gained a lot of confidence for the management team and the Board of Dun & Bradstreet. They have a very good track record, and they've done great things with Dun & Bradstreet since they took over the company some time ago.

Is it possible to get that number of shares?

Yes, it is. Again some assistance here, Mikael. It's 4,358,257 million, so 4-3-5-8-2-5-7.

Okay. And then lastly, on Bisnode, the Belgian operations. How is that process going? Was that -- or has that divestment process just began? Or how do you see that going?

No. These operations will probably not be divested before the closing of the deal in -- if it's in January or December, I don't know. But we are now digging in deeper to the Belgium operations than we have done before. So actually, we -- it's not only Bisnode people there now, it's also RATOS people down in Belgium right now.

[Operator Instructions] Okay. There appears to be no further questions. So I'll hand back to our speakers for any other remarks.

Okay. Thank you so much for attending this call and for all the good questions. I'm looking forward to talk to you all again. Thank you very much. Helene, do you want to say something?

No. And if you have any further questions, do not hesitate to reach out to us after the call. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this now concludes our conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines.