Valmet Oyj ($VALMT)

Earnings Call Transcript · April 28, 2026

HLSE FI Industrials Machinery Earnings Calls 45 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Pekka Rouhiainen

Executives
#1

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Valmet's Q1 results webcast. Before we start the short practical note today's webcast is audio only due to flu in the team. Thanks for your understanding. I'm Pekka Rouhiainen from Investor Relations. And with me today are Valmet's President and CEO, Thomas Hinnerskov as well as CFO, Katri Hokkanen. Today, Thomas will start with an overview of Valmet from the customer and investor viewpoint and go through the first quarter performance. Katri will then discuss the financials in more detail. After that, Thomas will return to cover the guidance and short-term market outlook before we open the lines for the questions. And as usual, you can submit written questions through the webcast platform at any time. . But with that, let's get started. Thomas, the floor is yours.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#2

Thank you, Pekka, and good morning, everyone, from me as well. The headline message for this first quarter is that we continue to execute our strategy in an overall demanding market environment while sales mix had a clear impact on our profitability. Customer decision-making remain cautious and the geopolitical situation decreased visibility. Against that backdrop, our process performance business continued to deliver strong margins, while biomaterial business was impacted by project facing and the mix. Importantly, the benefits from the early and decisive operating model actions we took last year are clearly and continue to be clearly visible, supporting earnings quality also in a softer market. Before we go into the quarter in detail, let me briefly remind you what Valmet is fundamentally about. Our strategy is built on improving the performance of industrial assets across their life cycle. We help customers run their operation reliably produce more efficiently with fewer resources and operate with less manual effort. We do this through services, upgrades and automation, often in operations that are critical to our customers every day, but also critical to a lot of us in society. For here shareholders, this is important because this means recurring demand from our large global installed base and less dependency on capital projects. So our quarterly results matters, the overall direction of the company is perhaps even more important. We are building a stronger, more resilient valent by creating measurable customer value every day. In short, Valmet today is far more than a product company the life cycle performance partner for our customers. This case is a good example of how our strategy translates into real business opportunities beyond our traditional markets. Today, more than 500 advanced vessels globally we rely on Valmet's automation solution in mission-critical operations every day. For customers, these systems help save cost, reduce risk and support increasingly complex vessel operation. For Valmet, this expands our installed base into another attractive life cycle market with long asset lives and recurring revenue potential over decades. It also demonstrates the strength and the scalability of our automation business. I think something we all as shareholders, but also us here in Finland can be truly proud of. With that said, let me turn to the first quarter highlights. Orders received amounted to EUR 1.1 billion. Orders decreased 15% organically, mainly due to the timing of large capital project orders, which can vary significantly between quarters. This also reflects the current overcapacity in the global pulp and paper markets where customers remain selective with large investment decisions. At the same time, our business is supported by a large global installed base built over decades. So every day, customers rely on Valmet to improve reliability, efficiency and performance through our services, our upgrades and our automation. Large projects remain an important part of our offering, but they are only one part of many ways that we create values for our customers on a daily basis. Net sales increased to EUR 1.2 billion, 9% up organically growth was driven by a higher share of capital projects revenue. That sales mix towards capital approaches and smaller mill improvement projects did impact our margins. So comparable EBITDA declined to EUR 114 million with a margin of 9.2%. Important to note that the negative FX impact was also visible in the comparable EBITDA and Katri will come back to this in more detail. At the same time, Pros Performance Solutions performed strongly. The orders grew faster than the overall market and comparable EBITDA margin increased to 18.5%. We very strong execution by the team and the Pros performance solutions. Our strategy is progressing. Last year, we renewed our operating model and made a number of difficult decisions early on. And I'm really pleased to see how these actions continue to deliver tangible benefits to us. Cost savings supported performance across both segments during the quarter. Our comparable SG&A costs are now EUR 66 million lower than in 2024, reflecting the impact of the significant measures that we've taken. In parallel, we continue to advance strategic plans to optimize and simplify our footprint. These actions improve our speed, our responsiveness to customers while also strengthening cost competitiveness and deliver reliability to our customers. Like you can see on the graph, this one, it was 1 of the slower quarters in recent years in terms of orders received. The main driver was low capital project INTECH. Furthermore, the comparison period included a large pulp mill rebuild from North America last year. Biomaterial services orders declined 7% organically. The service market overall remains soft as customers continue to defer purchases, reduce inventories and prioritize minimal maintenance. In contrast, Process Performance Solutions orders increased 4% organically, reflecting a return to low year-on-year growth after a weaker conditions seen in late 2025. This clearly demonstrates the strength of our life cycle offering and the value that we bring to customers. Next, let's take a closer look at the segments. Starting with Process Performance Solutions. This segment serves a broad global customer base across a range of industries. In the first quarter, around 63% of orders came from customers outside pulp and paper. A good example is marine automation, where more than 500 advanced vessels globally rely on Valmet solutions every day. Gross performance is also highly important earning contributor, representing around half of Valmet's comparable EBITDA in the quarter. This demonstrates both the diversification of our business model and the growing importance of automation and flow control within Valmet. First quarter orders increased 4% organically, while similar development in flow and automation solutions. This is a solid result in the current market environment and reflects growth above some of our key peers. Net sales grew 7% organically. Comparable EBITDA increased to $63 million and the margin improved to 18.5%. While the improvements were driven by cost savings from operating renewal and supported by elevated product margins during the quarter, it is nonetheless a very strong execution by the team. As communicated earlier, we do expect margins to ease somewhat from these record levels as we invest back into growth, but overall, profitability remains very solid. Turning to Biomaterials Solutions & Services. Orders decreased mainly due to capital project timing, especially in pulp, where the comparison period included a large modernization order. Power materials services orders declined 7% organically as the soft markets continues. Net sales increased 10% organically, driven by higher revenue recognition in large projects and smaller mill improvements. The Arauco project is proceeding according to schedule and budget. And we're very pleased with the progress so far with roughly 50% of the project's net sales already booked. So this mix shift was reflected in the margins and the comparable EBITDA margin decreased to 7.1%. We Importantly, execution on projects remain solid. Cost savings from the operating model renewal dip partially offset the mix impact. With that, I'll give the floor to Katri to hear more in detail about our finance for the quarter

Katri Hokkanen

Executives
#3

Thank you, Thomas, and good morning, everyone. I will cover the group level development of key financials in my part, and let's start with the net sales and comparable EBITA. Net sales increased 5% year-on-year or 9% organically. Net sales grew in both of the segments. FX had a big negative impact of approximately EUR 44 million, and the biggest factor was the weakening of U.S. dollar to euro compared with the first quarter last year. Comparable EBITDA was EUR 114 million with a margin of 9.2%. Sales mix shifted towards large projects and smaller mill improvements. Despite higher net sales and cost savings, profitability declined due to a lower gross margin. Furthermore, FX had a significant negative impact on the comparable EBITDA. And it is good to know that with current FX rates, we estimate that the impact will be smaller during the remainder of the year. The sequential decrease in both net sales and profits from Q4 follows a normal seasonal pattern and was as expected. Let's then look at how our cost base has developed in the recent years. The operating model renewal implemented last year is clearly visible in the cost base. And on the last 12 months basis, comparable SG&A expenses are now EUR 66 million lower than what they were in 2024, and that is almost 1 percentage point compared with net sales. While the operating model renewal brings savings, it is fundamentally aimed to improve the customer experience through the life cycle focus which is particularly important in the current market environment. Order backlog stood at EUR 4.2 billion at the end of the first quarter. And this provides good visibility for deliveries and net sales going forward with around EUR 2.8 billion expected to convert into revenue during 2026 based on current schedules. While slightly lower than year-end, the backlog remains at a healthy level, and our focus is on disciplined execution, profitability and cash flow. Let's now turn to our cash flow development. Cash flow from operating activities decreased to EUR 35 million in the first quarter. And this decrease was mainly related to an increase in the net working capital. The reported net working capital of minus EUR 131 million, includes a EUR 249 million dividend liability which doesn't have a cash flow impact. Excluding dividend liability, net working capital increased by EUR 89 million from year-end, and this was mainly driven by project phasing and timing effects. It is important to bear in mind that quarterly fluctuations in cash flow are typical for Valmet, and we continue to expect cash conversion this year to be in line with our historical average of over 90%. Balance sheet remained strong. Gearing was 37% at the end of the first quarter. and well below our 50% target. Net debt-to-EBITDA stood at 1.45, and liquidity remains healthy. We expect to close to 7 acquisition towards the end of the second quarter. And this will have an approximately 15 percentage point impact to gearing. And we are comfortable with that level given the strong cash conversion ratio our business inherently has. Comparable ROCE improved to 13.4%, and as shown in the graph, capital employed decreased by around EUR 230 million compared with 2024, which supported the returns. Our long-term target is 20% by 2030 to be driven by profitable growth, higher comparable EBITDA margins and disciplined value creation -- creating capital allocation. Adjusted EPS declined, and this was primarily due to items affecting comparability, which were related to planned strategic footprint measures. This slide gives you a snapshot of all of our figures at once, many of which we have already covered in detail. From this table, I would like to highlight the items affecting comparability, which amounted to minus EUR 32 million, again, related to strategic footprint measures in Sweden and in Poland. The effective tax rate was 23.6%, and this is below our long-term average of 25%, which we expect also going forward. The deviation in the tax rate in the first quarter from the '25 was due to timing effects. In summary, net sales increased, but the mix impacted our results. Furthermore, we had further headwinds from FX, which we do not expect to burden our Q2 results to the same extent given the current FX rates. We expect the cash conversion ratio to remain at a solid level, also full year 2026 and look forward to starting the integration of Severn into Valmet towards the end of the second quarter. With that, I hand it over to Thomas to go over the guidance.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#4

Thank you very much, Katri. We reiterate our guidance for 2026 issued in February 6 this year. So net sales are expected to remain at previous year's level and comparable EBITDA is expected to remain at previously level or increase. The guidance is supported by our further cost actions announced this morning as well as smaller negative impact from FX, assuming the rates remain at the current levels. In terms of the short-term market outlook, we were pleased that the process performance solution markets have returned to low year-on-year growth. This development was in line with our expectations communicated in the Q4 call as well. Biomaterials Solutions & Services should improve slightly as a whole. However, this reflects a very low project activities in Q1, which serves as the baseline for this outlook. The market for biomaterial services is expected to remain soft in the next 2 quarters and customers are likely to remain selective in their investment decisions. At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty has increased direct impacts on them but are limited, a bit over 1% of our net sales come from the effect of Middle East region last year and very little own footprint, personnel or our suppliers. The main impact related to logistic costs and general economic sentiment and how that impacts our customers' demand. These are industry-wide and manage also through commercial actions to mitigate the inflationary impact. So to wrap up things before opening the lines for questions and answering. First of all, strategy execution progressed and our early cost actions continue to support our performance also here in Q1. Sales mix did impact Q1 margins, but our guidance remain unchanged. The guidance is supported by further cost actions, including the EUR 8 million additional short-term savings we announced today. Also, assuming current FX rates, the impact from currencies during the rest of the year, as Katri alluded to, is expected to be smaller than during Q1. I do remain confident and also excited about the path that we are taking. Valmet on and have full confidence in the Valmet team to deliver the 5 plus 15 equals 20 by 2030, by bringing long-lasting life cycle value to our customers globally. So with that, I will hand over to Pekka.

Pekka Rouhiainen

Executives
#5

Thank you, Thomas. We'll now move to the Q&A. [Operator Instructions]. So we have now received a few questions here in the platform. So I suggest we take them first. The first one being on the Middle East crisis. So how does the Middle East crisis impact Valmet?

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#6

Yes. Clearly, you need to sort of look at the Middle East crisis from 2 angles. There's like I've just alluded to the direct part, roughly 1% of sales last year. similar levels on our OR, not that many people there, less than 100. So that impact is, of course, relatively limited. However, the indirect impact, which is also hard to measure is there, right? We see supply chain impact in terms of the energy cost, the logistic costs, the overall inflationary pressure coming out of that conflict, then the whole economic uncertainty, which drive both consumer confidence and therefore, consumer spending, our customers' demand -- or the demand for our customers' product, which then lead to sort of deferred investments and also savings programs with some of our customers. So the indirect is bigger than the direct but harder to measure. .

Pekka Rouhiainen

Executives
#7

Then a question on the Biomaterials Solutions & Services segment. Why did the margin in Q1 decreased?

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#8

Yes. Like we said, a lot of mix impact, both in terms of bit between projects, which we actually proceed really well very happy with the Arauco project, how that is progressing more than 50% of the sales is recognized now that also gave a bit of a spike in Q1. So that mix between projects and service is off or has changed, but also the mix within services towards more improvement projects has impacted them. And then as Katri alluded to, there's also a little bit of FX impact.

Pekka Rouhiainen

Executives
#9

All right. Good. Then those were the questions at my iPad so far and use that also going forward, if you want to use that platform, but we'll now go to the telephone line. So please.

Operator

Operator
#10

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Antti Kansanen from SEB.

Antti Kansanen

Analysts
#11

A few questions for me, please. I'll take them one by one, and I will follow up on the margin questions on the Biomaterials side. And I mean -- I think looking sequentially versus Q4, there's a bit of a step down in terms of in terms of margins. And just a question that I guess you guided that the Arauco contribution run rate would be fairly similar let's say, start of this year versus last year or at least on a full year basis. So was there a big change on the revenue recognition from that project? And do I understand correctly that, in a sense, it's a normal profitability considering the mix. And from here onwards, the mix improvement would be the primary driver for ready margin change. Just a little bit more color on that one. .

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#12

Good question, Antti. Yes, Arauco continue, as we said in Q4. However, we did fast forward some of the things in order to also mitigate some of the impact from the Middle East crisis to make sure that we actually have things on site. So that was just sort of us speeding up certain things which then led to a bit more revenue recognition than originally fully planned for Q1. Then you're absolutely right. I mean I think it really is back to 2 parts on the bio margin is that we have more project sales with lower margin. That means also proportionately less service sales in the service sales, there was a proportion -- a bigger proportion of improvement projects, which you also remember back in Q3 and 4, that's actually where a lot of the orders were coming in on, which we talked about back then. So that gave a bit of a mix swing within the service side of things. What I'm very happy about is that the customers are coming to us. I mean, given the whole situation actually continue to invest into these improvement projects to be more competitive in their markets. And that's what we're trying to help them with, even though if that impacts our margin negatively overall.

Katri Hokkanen

Executives
#13

And may I still have 1 comment regarding the Arauco. So the revenue recognition for the first quarter was about EUR 170 million and for the full year, we are expecting roughly this EUR 400 million, so no changes in that. It was a bit more tilted towards the Q1.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#14

Exactly.

Antti Kansanen

Analysts
#15

All right. That makes sense. But a bit of a follow-up on that one. And regarding kind of the a deal and kind of where you would be exposed to any cost inflation regarding logistics or anything else? So kind of risks going forward, how well do you think you are mitigated by those factors that are not necessarily covered by clauses or agreements with the customers or suppliers? I mean logistics comes to mind first.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#16

Yes. We've been very upfront early on, on securing both the freight cost and the actually freight capacity as well. So overall and doing all the procurement very early on in the project, also what's going to be delivered later during this year. So I'm quite confident of the overall delivery of this and also that we should not see as we see it now, any negative margin impact compared to what we -- or to compare to plan.

Antti Kansanen

Analysts
#17

All right. And then the second follow-up was then on the services side going forward. I mean you kind of repeat the demand guidance that you have on the previous quarter. So it remains soft. Is there any kind of incremental change that you see in the pace of recovery? And how should we then think about the mix within services going forward regarding kind of the impacts that you had on Q1?

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#18

Yes. It's, of course, that's sort of a little bit of -- as we said, softer market. Clearly, we've seen some of our -- a lot of our customers are struggling in this lower demand situation that also the Middle East is impacting on. So they're taking short-term savings actions which means that reducing inventories, they do minimum maintenance right there. deferring investments unless they're very short payback times. So that's what we are trying to help them with to do the right things, given a difficult situation there are in. And then there's -- for us, of course, there's a volume and mix impact. So that also means that the mix impact we talked about, but also the volume the last sold in the service business have already been covering all the costs and the fixed cost. So there's a high drop down rate to the bottom line, right.

Antti Kansanen

Analysts
#19

Okay. And then lastly, on the full year sales guidance. If you look at the backlog, I guess you had it on the presentation that is a little bit lower deliveries for this year versus where we were a year ago and then a bit muted service markets still and low growth for automation. So where are the opportunities to grow sales and kind of offset the negative factors that you are facing for the full year.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#20

Yes. So that's -- of course, there's a lot of focus on the wholesale side right now, making sure that we do get a good -- or deliver our book-to-build so that we can actually invoice that in the second -- particularly in the second half of this year.

Antti Kansanen

Analysts
#21

Okay.

Unknown Executive

Executives
#22

So Antti, you add the kind of impact from the net sales that Q1 impacted, minus EUR 44 million in the net sales side. And if the FX rates stay at the current levels, then that impact will be smaller going forward.

Operator

Operator
#23

The next question comes from Michael Doepel from Nordea.

Mikael Doepel

Analysts
#24

Maybe I could just start with a brief follow-up on the question about the service or the aftermarket business for [indiscernible], if you could get a bit more granularity in terms of the regions, what you see out there? I think the operating rates are -- for example, the U.S. is a bit stronger than in Europe, what about Asia? If you could talk a bit about that. And also, I mean, if you look at this business historically and in the historic cycles, it doesn't tend to decline for that many quarters in a row usually. Just wondering if there's anything in this cycle that you would point to that should make us think different at this time around.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#25

Thanks, Michael. Yes, clearly, there are regional differences. As you alluded to, also coming a bit from the operating rates, which means that we've actually, [ what's going to say ], North America is actually not doing too bad. Of course, we have the FX impact in the Q1 from the U.S. dollar there, but that market is growing quite well, high operating rates as well. Strong focus on improving the relatively old asset base that is there. So also on the improvement projects, that is an important market where we help our customers a lot. And then clearly, lower operating rates in China where also the overcapacity mainly is to be found, right? So that's, of course, on the other end of the spectrum in terms of demand. Then a bit on the future, it is clear that this [indiscernible] lease crisis are throwing sort of clouds over how -- what's the economic development in the world, how does consumers start how are they buying or spending? And how does that then impact the packaging market and therefore, our customers there, which is a little bit hard to really sort of predict going forward.

Mikael Doepel

Analysts
#26

Okay. It's clear. If I can just ask on the project business going forward. I mean you mentioned that was fairly thin on project overall, you expect to see a bit of a pickup there. Maybe you could talk a bit about the pipeline you see out there? And in particular, if there's anything you could say about the bigger greenfield projects, especially in Latin America, but also what you're seeing in China. I think you mentioned, for example, in China, having multiple projects in the pipeline. Previously, are those still there. Are they being postponed? Will you talk a bit about the project pipeline would be great?

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#27

Yes. As we also alluded to when we reiterate our guidance and the short-term market outlook is that we do expect the project business to pick a little bit up after this quite slow quarter. Of course, as you know, China is one of the markets where this is happening despite that also where the the biggest overcapacity actually is, but there is some room for more efficient capacity and, therefore, also taking less efficient local capacity out in the Chinese market. I think the important part here is how we actually also using that project resource, that capability, technical capability, both the buyer, but also in our PPS business to really help our customers in their old installed base to be more effective and more efficient in that and, therefore, more competitive in their market. So we saw that also in the PPS there was more service than project this quarter. which also helps improve -- or impacted positively on our margin actually in that segment. So a lot of efforts sifting from the greenfield to actually the brownfield small or larger, right, modernization or improvement projects.

Unknown Executive

Executives
#28

So that's also why going into that...

Mikael Doepel

Analysts
#29

A brief follow-up on that.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#30

Yes, go ahead, Michael.

Mikael Doepel

Analysts
#31

Just conceptually, I mean, how do you look at the market currently? Because what we have seen here is that there's been a lot of investment in China. They continue to invest. It's more integrated capacity on the pulp side of things. Do you see that sustained going forward as well, discussing with your customers in their plans? And how do you see that impacting the planned investments in Latin America? Should we expect those to kind of fade now given the trend here? Maybe just some thoughts around that?

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#32

Yes. I think clearly, I think this year, we'll see a lot of integrated or we say, new projects that developed integrated mills in China, where it really is about driving that integration efficiency out of an overall mill in production within the China market. So that, I think, will continue throughout this year. And that's also what we say a little bit about this improved capital business. Then when it comes to Latin America, it's clear that they are still the lowest cost producer of pulp. So they still have a competitive advantage there, of course, a markets, I would say. However, of course, the world is not as predictable as it used to be. So that's, of course, putting a little bit of additional decision-making time on the individual approaches. So it's very hard to predict when a project will be decided or not decided, right? But I think it goes back to Latin America is still the lowest cost producer of [indiscernible] Brazil is, and that will give them advantage also going forward.

Operator

Operator
#33

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Tom Skogman from DNB Carnegie.

Tomas Skogman

Analysts
#34

Yes, this is Tom from DNB Carnegie. I would like to focus a bit on your profitability guidance. Does this kind of include a pickup in the service business, you now have had like 3 slow quarters in orders there.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#35

Thanks [indiscernible]. I'm not sure. But I think it's just -- on the guidance, just if we get back to that, I think as we said, we continue to expect that the service market will be soft for the next 2 quarters. We offset the outlook is more cloudy than it was when we actually gave out the original guidance back on the February 6. Hence, we are taking actions to further support that guidance, which, of course, a lot of that impact will come in the third quarter. So it really is about that we make sure that we take the right actions to create a strong development going forward. making sure that we balance the cost savings but also making sure that we continuously have the capabilities that can actually deliver the demand that our customers are coming out with also a little bit on the longer scale. But clearly, we do expect that the second half will be better than -- in a stronger second half than what we saw last year.

Tomas Skogman

Analysts
#36

Yes. I understand that because I mean customers cannot take production rate forever, of course.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#37

Of course, they cannot reduce inventories either forever.

Tomas Skogman

Analysts
#38

Yes. And then if you look at the biomaterials margins, I'm still a bit puzzled here because actually, equipment deliveries were very strong, which should mean good operating leverage. So this low margin, I mean service used to be then reported quite stable. It could go down 1 or 2 percentage points when it was bad times. But now it looks like either the equipment margins and the orders are taken in the last year are on a very, very low margin even loss-making or badly loss-making even -- or then the service margin has collapsed. And I don't -- one was going on. I mean, you should be able to take out costs in service as well if it's just relating to to low sales in service.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#39

Yes. I think -- yes, I think I understand your question, Tom. There really is 3 parts you need to think about. One, we're happy with how the projects are performing, all brought. A lot of it comes from Arauco. Katri also just alluded to how much sales actually coming from that project as well. That's tracking very well. But that also means that the part of the overall biomaterial business has increased then the overall service or when you then look at the mix within the service then improvement projects are a much higher part of that, which also impacts our margins negatively as well. And then that overall gives this low buyer margin. Then on top of that, there's a volume impact. And it's back to -- you alluded to a little bit -- we still want to have the sales force out there talking to the customers. We don't want to cut those because then you're sort of shooting ourselves in the foot. So we want to keep that. That also means that if you get the volumes up, then the drop-down rate of that additional volume is pretty big. So the swing factor of the last EUR 50 million of service sales is pretty big on that one.

Tomas Skogman

Analysts
#40

Yes, I understand you. And perhaps just a bit more short term about the biomaterials equipment sales funnel what do you see? I guess -- I mean you have a funnel, but how do you see things moving ahead? .

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#41

Yes. So I mean, we do -- of course, we see the funnel. Some of that has also been a little bit delayed, which we expected to happen here in Q1, but now being pushed into Q2. As Michael also alluded to from die, clearly, there's quite some activity in the Chinese market as well. So I think we'll we do it, as we said, expect a better next 6 months versus what we saw in Q1, right? However, I think we also need to see this as the real important part is, and that's why we should not be sad about even though it impacts the margin, the service mix that we have more improvement approach. It is super important that we do help our customers with improving the efficiency of their older assets so that they can compete in the market and also be -- have better margins themselves therefore, they have better capital to invest as well. So it really is important. That's also why we're keeping the capabilities on the engineering and so on to be able to support our customers with the improvements that rebuilds the modernizations.

Tomas Skogman

Analysts
#42

Yes. Perhaps you could just continue then finally a bit about kind of the strategy for biomaterials because I think just from our kind of financial perspective, you can start to question whether it makes sense to book large pulp mill orders. Of course, long term, it's good for service, et cetera. But just as you look at the valuation, it like it really seems to hold down the valuation of Valmet that you still try to win orders in a very, very slow market. I mean could we see malt making more radical changes to its strategy somehow. And just tell customers that, yes, we can perhaps deliver some board machines and some [indiscernible] in the future, but the scope will be smaller and we will have a very limited capacity for the foreseeable future, basically or something like that. So could you divest some parts do business differently in [indiscernible] is to just deliver core components and not take EPC responsibility. I mean other things you are working on to change the scope to get up your valuation multiple.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#43

I don't think we have a scope issue as such, Tom. I mean we see the Arauco that's an EPC goes really well. We are progressing well with that project. But of course, it is about making sure that we have a supply chain that is geared towards a -- or have a capacity that is leveraged more towards doing more [indiscernible] projects, more rebuilds, more brownfields and less greenfields because the important part, as you allude to, really, is about how do we help our customers optimize their install base. That's where we bring value to the table, but that's also where the valuation is right. So clearly, I mean, a more aftermarket focus is where we are taking the company. That's also one you see that we took these supply chain actions of actually closing some capacity in Sweden and Poland. Of course, it takes a little bit of time to ramp it down. And also the existing production that is actually there, potentially move some equipment to other places so that we can continue performing certain tasks, but that is -- I think that's part of the strategy, making sure we have a much more resilient supply chain that is also more geared towards service, including improvements and modernization brownfield stuff. Well, I like your thinking.

Operator

Operator
#44

There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers.

Pekka Rouhiainen

Executives
#45

I guess there are indicating there is one more question. So we'll take that question still, please?

Operator

Operator
#46

The next question comes from Michael Doepel from Nordea.

Mikael Doepel

Analysts
#47

Yes. It's Michael here again. Just a brief follow-up. I was just wondering, in terms of the server acquisition, I think you said back in Q4, it's not included in the guidance. Is that still the case, just to make sure.

Pekka Rouhiainen

Executives
#48

Yes. That's the short answer. It's not included in the guidance. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So I guess it's now time to conclude today's event. So Valmet Q2 report will be published on 24th of July. But now I'm handing over to Thomas for the closing remarks.

Thomas Hinnerskov

Executives
#49

Thank you, Pekka, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today for a good discussion. I do actually really want to also thank our customers and shareholders for your continued trust. I mean at Valmet, we remain focused on improving the performance of our customers' initial assets across the life cycle, which we just talked a lot about, especially in the Q&A. We are also taking decisive action to build a stronger and more resilient company. We believe we're well positioned despite the current market backdrop and the sort of overall challenging situation. But thank you all again, and I'm looking forward to speaking with many of you over the coming weeks and have a very good day. Thanks.

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