Trelleborg AB (publ) (TRELB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Trelleborg Q3 2026 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Peter Nilsson; and CFO, Fredrik Nilsson. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome all of you to this quarter 3 call for 2026 for Trelleborg. Presenting, myself, Peter Nilsson, President and CEO of Trelleborg; and also joining on the call, Fredrik Nilsson, our Group CFO, will guide you through some of the financials. And also on the call and available for potential questions and guidance is also Christofer Sjögren, our Head of Investor Relations. And as usual, we are going to speak through the slide deck, which is you can find on our web page. And quickly moving to that and moving to Page 2 on that slide deck. Agenda for the call, which is then, as usual, starting with some highlights, some individual comments on the business areas. Fredrik will then guide us through financials. And then we will sum it up with some summary and also some comments on the outlook for the running quarter. And then finishing up as usual as well with a Q&A session. So then moving to Page 3 in the slide deck. headline for this report: strong growth and record high margin. It is the best ever quarter for us in terms of our sales, absolute profit and margin. So solid quarter if you're looking on the totality. Increase of 8% compared to a year ago, with organic sales up by 6%. And then we are also supported by some M&A and currency with 1 percentage point each. And that means also these higher volumes, we feel well managed. And then our profit is up by some 16%. And then all in all, it also then gives us then a margin of 19.3%, which is both in terms, as I already commented, both in terms of EBITA and margin highest to date for a single quarter for Trelleborg. And that also then boils down to the earnings per share is also up. Well managed also on the financial costs in this quarter, which means that we have an even higher increase in earnings per share in the quarter compared to a year ago. We still, as usual in Trelleborg, we continue to invest in a better structure, so we also have some restructuring costs basically in line with what we had a year ago. Cash flow also solid. I mean on this higher growth, of course, that is entailing a little bit higher inventory, a little bit higher accounts receivables, but all in all, well managed. And we managed also -- although on this much higher sales, we managed also to deliver good cash flow. Also note, we continue to do buybacks level as before, SEK 538 million exactly in this quarter. And we continue to then do buybacks on the -- around this SEK 500 million a quarter. It has been for some time, and it's also the plan going forward. We also note the satisfaction we are able in the quarter. We have bought M+R Dichtungstechnik in Germany, which is a small bolt-on for us, important, which is then supporting us in one specific niche for what we call extruded profiles, extruded seals, benefiting us there in a niche part of that market. And we also have signed, in the quarter, we signed an agreement to acquire Cascade in Washington State outside of Seattle, aerospace-oriented asset, which we are very happy to welcome to the Trelleborg family. And also, we have also managed, post actually the closing of Q3, to sign another one, Producta, which is also extruded profile, sealing profile, specifically for the construction industry, with a focus on Italy and Southern Europe, where we are, let's say, supplementing us specifically by adding presence in some geographies where we had a little bit more limited presence before. And we also just here the other day, another acquisition, let's say, related to aerospace, called Tri-Mack, which has also been signed and waiting for closing. So all in all, a very good quarter for us where a lot of things has been moving in the right direction. I mean this is a result overall of our continued focus on specific segments. We see especially strong, I'll get back to that later as well, but we are going to note already here that we have specific strengths in some of the focus areas for us like aerospace, semicon, LNG and others, which is kind of slow movement in the right direction, slow moment towards these more attractive segments. And that is where the game plan also going forward is the same, that we can continue to move in the same direction. Moving to Page 4, a little bit individual comments on the growth in the quarter. We note, as you see, a relatively same growth globally, and not a lot of difference for us, between Europe, Americas and Asia. It is, as you know, we have some project-related sales, which is kind of making the Asian sales a little bit plus 5. It's not bad, but nevertheless, it's down compared to a year ago. We had more project sales in Asia a year ago. And the opposite in Europe, we had more project sales in this quarter than we had a year ago. But overall, as you say, fairly evenly split for us, and it is 2 percentage points up compared to a year ago. So very solid development all over the world, if you put it like that. Turning to Page 5, agenda slide again, business areas. And then quickly turning to Page 6, on Trelleborg Industrial Solutions. Solid organic growth. We are back. Solid organic growth, as we said, Project sales is up by 4%. And we also, as already commented, we have some M&A kicking in here as well. So that's adding another 2%. So we are seeing this positive momentum, as we guided for before, we see infrastructure marine projects, more deliveries in the quarter. And by the way, which we also see that's going to increase the growth going to continue here into Q4. Not a big change in construction demand, which is both residential and, let's say, and commercial construction, continue with a very, let's say, slow demand in a way. Not really big changes compared to a quarter ago, but nevertheless, no real uptick yet in this segment. Automotive and rail is also down slightly. It's not really any big movements in those areas. And rail is more private related, to be direct on that one. While automotive, of course, we continue to see relatively good development in Asia and Americas, while Europe slightly softer. Aerospace is strong. I mean that is also benefiting industrial solutions and benefiting even more when we look at sealing solutions later. And we continue to see very strong aerospace in more or less all aspects, both, let's say, commercial space and defense. So that is kind of driving in all directions. EBITA up, but margin is down a little bit due to sales mix, and that is related to the project-related sales, which was kind of stronger in a certain area last year, where we had a very strong margin in that area, which we didn't have kind of this year. But overall, let's say, a step in the right direction for industrial solutions, and we're looking with more confidence going forward. Already commented here acquisition, is a small acquisition, this M+R Dichtungstechnik, but nevertheless, adding some strength in an area where we were a little bit weaker in Europe, more specialty sealing profiles for, let's say, more engineered applications. So that is going to -- we're going to benefit from that. It's not going to move the needle a lot, but that is the way we work. We are strengthening already strong positions, and this is kind of a bolt-on which is adding some skills in an area where we already have a good position. Turning to Page 7, medical solutions. We have a slight decline due to tough comps we had. As those of you following us for some time, you remember, a year ago, we guided for a very strong growth. We are plus 13% a year ago, where, let's say, more than half of that growth was actually coming from 1 individual start-up of a new program. So sort of the underlying is still moving basically the same as a year ago in terms of -- if you adjust for that, you get to kind of same growth this quarter as we had a year ago for the underlying business. We see good demand in North America and Europe. A little bit weaker market in Asia where there is some reset of some of our customers. We are not kind of concerned about that long term. But in this quarter, it's hitting us a little bit. And that means in total that EBITA and margin is somewhat down. No big numbers here, as you say. We're talking, let's say, EUR 1 million down compared to a year ago, but nevertheless, it's down. And that is, of course, impacting the margin. And also here, we need to note that the comparison numbers was kind of tough in the quarter. And there's also some mix where we can explain with some, let's say, customer deliveries. Once again, it was an extraordinary delivery a year ago, and that is, of course, also impacting the comps here when we look at both EBITA and margin. Also with satisfaction, we have, since a few months, up and running Costa Rica facility, which we are expanding into one of the kind of medical valleys of the world. Costa Rica is growing a lot of medical down there, and we are satisfied to see that that is now starting to make money for us and we're starting to get some sales, some commercial sales. We have done some trial sales for quite some time, but there's some approval processes and everything and now the approvals is in place. And now we are starting to grow that facility and starting to deliver for that. We expect more of that going forward, but it is nothing happening overnight. But the direction is clear and we will see benefits going forward on this Costa Rica investment that we have done in Trelleborg Medical Solutions. So moving then to Page 8, Sealing Solutions. Strong sales and profit growth. A very solid quarter. Organic sales is up by 9%. I mean we had a few quarters here with good growth. M&A also adding 1 percentage point. We see basically a healthy growth in industrials all over. And especially then when we report within industrial, the semiconductor sales is very strong, especially in Asia, where we see both startup with new customers and also with existing customers ordering more. And that is an area where we are investing. We are expanding in China. We are also looking to some other investments in that area in order to be able to follow the growth in this segment. Automotive sales for Sealing Solutions is up, especially supported by Asia and North America. And there we see, especially for those of you following us know, we have a [ brake shim ] kind of sealing anti-vibration product, which is now where we have been suffering a little bit in the aftermarket with some pickup in the aftermarket and also generally actually a good demand where we continue to see benefits of our, if I may say, our superior solution compared to our competitors. We continue to grow market share. We continue to grow in the OE. And now in this quarter, as I already commented, supported also with some bounce-back, if I may say, in the aftermarket for this product. So overall, good. Aerospace, very strong, if I say, globally, continue to move in this. And we are very satisfied also that we, although not in the figures yet, but we continue to do, to work on, let's say, bolt-on acquisitions here. And we are working on our product portfolio. We are working on our customer access, if I may say. And then that is also where we see possibilities also going forward. But very strong in aerospace and continued -- we expect that to continue to be very strong for quite some time. Overall, EBITA margin then is up by almost 3 percentage points, which, of course, very strong. And let's say overall here, which I started to comment on the overall business, we see this also as a result on growth in prioritized segments where we're creating foundations in all of these subsegments which we're focusing in order to get better growth, but also get the profitability as we go. So good delivery of Sealing Solutions and also confidence going forward. Page 9, sustainability. We are on a very good level. I mean we continue to bring down the CO2 emissions, getting to levels where it will be more challenging to improve further. And that is why focus here is maybe to going forward to maintain in this level and do some fine-tuning in order to get it even better. But well managed and very well under control. And the same applies to the next page, Page 10, where we have basically all electricity we buy now is kind of renewable or fossil-free electricity, it's up to 97%. And the remaining 3% in some geographies is kind of impossible to get kind of fossil-free and renewable energy because that is not kind of available to buy in some geographies. And that is basically where we are at the moment. So this is not possible to improve further without really substantial investments. So we focus going forward is to keep it on this very high level. Page 11, agenda slide, financials, and then leave it to Fredrik for Page 12.

Thank you, Peter. Starting with the sales development. Reported net sales increased by 8% in the quarter, up to SEK 9.232 billion, highest sales for the quarter. Organic sales growth of 6% in the quarter. Industrial Solutions plus 4%; Sealing Solutions, as Peter mentioned, plus 9%; and Medical Solutions decreased by 1%. As you can also see on the slide, we have some positive translation effects, added 1% in the quarter. And structural changes added another percentage point. Moving on to Page 13, looking at the sales of fixed FX. Here you can see that we achieved 7% sales growth at constant FX, which is almost in line with our sales target of 8%. Moving on to Page 14, looking at the rolling 12 months development for sales. You have SEK 35.3 billion. And you can see here it's ticking upwards. Moving on, Page 15, EBITA and EBITA margin. EBITA, excluding items affecting comparability, increased by 16% to SEK 1.781 billion, which is the highest quarterly EBITA and margin ever. And in the quarter, we also have a positive impact of SEK 21 million in translation effects. Margin-wise, up from 18.1% to 19.3%. And here you can see the margin improvement is due to the focus on fast-growing segments, which is paying off with higher demand. Continue to Page 16, looking at the rolling 12 months trend. You can see we are now at an EBITA of SEK 6.670 billion, which translates into a margin of 18.9% on a rolling 12 months basis. And you can also see here on the page that we are up 5% during the last 12 months. But please remember, there was a quite significant FX impact during Q1 and Q2. Moving on to Page 17, going into some more details on the profit and loss statement. You can see items affecting comparability of SEK 67 million in the quarter, and it's entirely related to restructuring. Financial net, SEK 109 million negative versus minus SEK 126 million 12 months ago. The improvement here was primarily attributable to positive FX effect on credit facilities. And I would also like to highlight here, going forward, we expect that the financial net will be somewhat more negative due to the higher interest rates that we are seeing. And the tax rate for the quarter, 25%, which is in line with our communicated guidance for the full year as well. Moving on, Page 18, earnings per share, a very nice improvement, as Peter mentioned, up from SEK 4.20 to SEK 5.15, excluding items affecting comparability, so an increase of 23%. And that is mainly due to improved EBITA, improved financial net and also the effect of the ongoing share buyback program. And if we include items affecting comparability, up from previously SEK 3.94, to SEK 4.92. Turning to Page 19, looking at the cash flow. And as you can see here, a very solid cash flow for the quarter, up 6%. We continue to see a good improvement of EBITA. Working capital, as you can see, slightly negative. Two main reasons here. Accounts receivable is increasing due to the higher sales growth, and we have also built up some inventory to secure that we can support the organic growth. Lower CapEx by SEK 26 million in the quarter has also a positive impact. Moving on to Page 20, looking at the cash conversion. And you can see that we continue to have a very good cash conversion. So the last 12 months ending up at 95%. Page 21, looking at the gearing and leverage development. We ended the quarter with a net debt of [ SEK 9.418 ] billion, with share buyback of SEK 538 million during the third quarter. And as you can see here on the page, the debt-equity ratio, 24%, and the net debt divided by EBITA, 1.2. In other words, our balance sheet remains very strong. Moving on, Page 22, the return on capital employed. You can see it's excluding items affecting comparability, ended at 13% end of the quarter. And as you can see on the page here, you see the nice trend from Q3 2025 continues, and we are gradually improving our return on capital employed. Turning to Page 23, the financial guidelines for the full year. Starting with CapEx, SEK 1.450 billion, unchanged as previously communicated. Restructuring costs going up from SEK 375 million to SEK 550 million, and that is due to faster execution of projects originally planned for 2027. This should imply lower restructuring next year. Amortization of intangibles, unchanged, SEK 650 million. And underlying tax rate also 25%. And by that, I would like to hand back the microphone to you, Peter.

Thank you, Fredrik. Turning to Page 24, agenda, summary and some comments on the outlook for the coming quarter. Page 27, we see this quarter as a move in the right direction for us, continued move in the right direction. I mean we see this overall development as a kind of result of showing strength by having continued to benefit from strong market positions, our local footprint, our global footprint, where we are able to create benefits all across the world. Also see it as this systematic approach we have in Trelleborg, continue to invest in improving our structure, continue to improve in efficiency. And maybe most importantly, also, we see the benefits of our ambition to kind of continue to focus and continue to grow in these areas where we have identified as our speedboat areas. where we see in this quarter, especially good moves in aerospace, in semiconductors, LNG, but also in a lot of other smaller subsegments. And overall, I mean, individually for the quarter, we see an improved demand because sales at an all-time high. We see a solid organic growth. We see also this is then, let's say, also benefiting in earnings. We manage -- we feel we managed this increased demand increased sales in a good way. So we have also higher growth in earnings than we have in sales. And also, we are, with satisfaction, also see that we're able to manage cash flow and thereby also continue to keep our balance sheet very healthy and continue to have a balance sheet with creating options and possibilities for us going forward. And we also note that in order to continue to support our shareholders and continue to use this good balance sheet, we continue to do share buybacks at the level of SEK 500 million per quarter. So all in all, a good quarter. We feel it's a good quarter, and we see this is a move in the right direction. Of course, we are not at all at the end of the development of Trelleborg. We're going to continue to invest in good areas where we want to grow, profitable growth. And also, we're going to continue to invest in making sure that we have a structure as good as possible. Turning to Page 26 and commenting on the outlook. We see strong markets in more or less all areas, and we see that demand is going to remain on this level. We have a strong order intake in the quarter going into Q4 with a better order book or, let's say, higher order book and we're going into Q3. So we are confident on the sales growth there also in Q4, and that is why the guidance is that we will be on par with this very relatively high organic growth or we could even be 1 or 2 percentage points higher than that if everything goes as planned and expected. But of course, we notice also there is still fairly big geopolitical let's say, challenges around. And I mean, things can happen, and we want to add a note like that. It's not kind of a new note. We have kept it for some time. But nevertheless, we want to remain cautious and be ready to act if there is any dramatic changes anywhere in the world. So with that, turning to Page 27 and then quickly turning to Page 28 and opening up for questions. So please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Ope Otaniyi from Goldman Sachs.

Maybe just on outlook. I might have missed the color in terms of the specific number you gave, but could you just kind of help guide in terms of the range and sort of what that means for the LNG revenues, I suppose if you're on par with the 6% in Q3, what does that imply in terms of delivery and LNG revenues?

No, the guidance is that we are minimum 6%, if I call it like that. And then it could be, let's say, a few percentage points higher than that. And that is kind of depending on that we have a solid order book, especially for the project deliveries in Industrial Solutions, but there's also always some uncertainty whether the customer kind of accept the delivery or whether we are able to actually deliver this. And that is really where there is some kind of uncertainty whether we will be able to get it out. But if we get it out as planned and as in the order book, it will be kind of 6% plus. But the plus is not that it's going to be several percentage points higher. But I mean, that is the way we see the figures at the moment.

Okay. And I may have missed this earlier, but I suppose margin performance by division, Sealing Solutions is extremely strong. Industrial Solutions slightly weaker, Medical slightly weaker. But sort of what are key deviations driving that? How should we think of that going into Q4?

Starting with the Medical, I mean, these are fairly small numbers, to be honest. And that is kind of if we had a very strong quarter a year ago with extraordinary high deliveries, then we get something. We're talking EUR 1 million here of difference between the, let's say, performance last year and performance this year. So it's not really a big -- and that is for us some kind of smaller items. So we do expect Medical to remain on this level, yes, give or take, but it's not going to be any dramatic changes going into Q4. And for Industrial Solutions, we had commented already earlier that we do -- if these project deliveries kick in as expected, we're going to see a positive, let's say, movement between Q3 and Q4 in terms of margin for the Industrial Solutions. But there's also as we have this kind of project deliveries, which is impacting quite a lot between the quarters. I mean we have to look at the rolling 12 number basically for Industrial Solutions, and that is the way we look at that. But once again, confidence on that we're going to see an improvement between Q3 and Q4. And then for Sealing Solutions, we are on a high level where we are basically back to the levels now where we have been before. And I mean, if you go back a few years, and we are confident on high demand and good -- continued good delivery on this. So that is kind of -- I don't want to give any specific guidance on Sealing Solutions, but that it will remain on a healthy level.

The next question comes from Chit Sinha from JPMorgan.

I have 2, please. The first one, maybe if you could just provide a bit more color on the sales mix impact that you saw in Industrial Solutions. I mean, was the magnitude expected? And then should we expect this headwind again in Q4? I'm just trying to understand the underlying margin for this business now.

Yes. I mean that was -- I mean, to be very open, it was a specific very profitable project a year ago, which we didn't have this year. But underlying performance is still the same. And I mean, if we get a little bit extra, as I said before in the previous question here, if we get the deliveries as expected in Q4, if we get that out of the door, we'll be -- going to see a positive movement on that margin. I mean I understand that you want to give, let's say, quarterly guidance, but for us, it's more longer term and see the direction. I mean we have the rolling 12 figure, and there is some kind of mix changes in between the quarter. Now we have a little bit negative mix in this quarter, but it could very well be that we have a positive mix in the next quarter. So that is unfortunately the nature of this business. It is some, let's say, project deliveries and the project is, in a certain way, a little bit different profitability on it. So we feel confident that it's going to be better in Q4 than on Q3, but it's difficult really to give a firm guidance on exactly how much.

Okay. Great. And then maybe you could just touch on the broader cost environment that you're seeing at present? I mean, the pricing contribution that we saw in Q3.