Hello, everyone. Welcome to the presentation of Schouw & Co.'s Q1 report. I will do the presentation, and then, after this presentation, there will be Q&As, and I will instruct you later on how to do the Q&A session. 2022 Q1 was a quarter that suddenly became very turbulent for Schouw & Co. We saw huge impact from the Russia and Ukraine conflict. Uncertainty in general increased, and it has been really challenging for all our companies and organizations around the world. Still, activity continued to be at a very high level across all our companies. Our order book is still strong. In fact, we have an all-time high order book as we speak.
Revenue for the group was up 28% to DKK 6.3 billion, impacted by higher volume and of course also huge effect from increasing raw material prices. Our EBITDA was down 24% to DKK 364 million. However, looking at what we call the underlying profitability, then we saw it as very as being good. We had a lot of negative effect from exploding costs, especially freight and energy impact of around DKK 80 million in the quarter. We also had an impact from what we mentioned and call one-offs of around DKK 72 million. All in all, the quarter was impacted of around DKK 150 million. Our net working capital increased from Q1 to today with DKK 2 billion and from year-to-date with DKK 1 billion.
We have, of course, very, very strong focus on the development of our net working capital, but we also have to say that we have taken strategic decisions on being able to supply our customers around the globe. Of course, we have been building inventories over a period of time. Looking at the largest company in our portfolio, BioMar, then revenue was up 34% to DKK 3 billion. Here we had also very huge impact from increasing raw material prices. Under that, we saw satisfactory growth of our volume of 8%, especially our Salmon Division and our LATAM Division showed very good development in the quarter.
We have had some biological challenges in the Salmon Division, meaning that there was not that much salmon at sea in some of the countries. EBITDA was down from DKK 133 million to DKK 54 million. Here we had a huge impact of one-offs around DKK 60 million. Unfortunately, we lost a patent case in Norway called STIM, and then we had a write-down of activities in Russia. All together, as I mentioned, DKK 60 million. BioMar has also been severely affected from increasing energy and freight costs, around DKK 40 million, so more than DKK 100 million of impact for BioMar in the quarter. As I said, we see here the underlying profitability at a rather satisfactory level. Contract negotiation season is ongoing in the Salmon.
As you all know, we are negotiating large contracts in Q2. As we speak, we see good progress. Let's hope that we'll be able to have good volumes and attractive margins in the period. Guidance for BioMar is impacted by the stop of our Russian activities. It's mainly hitting our operation in Denmark. We supply all the feed to Russia from our factory in Brande in Denmark. Revenue is now expected to be between DKK 16 million-DKK 17 million, also impacted by very high and increasing raw materials. EBITDA is now down in a range of DKK 890 million-DKK 940 million, impacted by effect of not selling to Russia. We do not expect to sell to Russia the rest of the year.
We also have to say that this guidance is without any write-down from our Russian assets. In Russia, main assets is debtors and cash as a liquidity, and of course, we are working on getting liquidity out of Russia. From there to GPV, where we saw the strongest quarter ever in the history of GPV. Revenue was crossing what we call an important DKK 1 billion mark. Very high activity from many customers and segments. In fact, we could say that all our segments from GPV are delivering high growth. We have a very solid backlog, and we continue to see very strong order intake. In fact, our order intake is now reaching into the start of 2024. EBITDA was 20% up to DKK 91 million.
We saw very high efficiency and scale effects. We could offset that there's a lot of pressure on cost in general. We see an increase in component prices, et cetera, but GPV has been able to manage that quite well. We have a difficult component situation, and it really puts pressure on our net working capital, but it also put pressure on the organization just to supply and secure components enough is really a huge challenge for the organization. We have a huge inventory build to support all-time high backlog. Of course, this inventory build is the strategic decisions we have taken, tying up a lot in the net working capital. We have been able to secure components at attractive prices.
We see a guidance upgrade in GPV, and here again, effect from our strong backlog. Revenue 10% up to DKK 3.5 billion-DKK 3.7 billion, and EBITDA in the level of DKK 310 million-DKK 350 million. From GPV to Fibertex Personal Care, where we saw revenue up 18%, but that was only due to increasing raw material prices. Volume in our Malaysian division was down. We have seen the effect of increasing freight costs and more and more materials are now staying in the region. We used to export quite a lot of materials from Malaysia to our U.S. Operation, but due to these transportation costs, it has been difficult. EBITDA, as expected, down 14% to DKK 69 million.
Impact from lower volume in Malaysia, and of course, also increasing costs from energy. Energy is now 5% of our revenues, so it has really increased over the last year. We have a new line in Malaysia, a Reicofil five line ready, and it's installed. It will be in operation mid Q2. It will secure increase the efficiency and also lower costs to offset some of the older lines in Malaysia. Guidance is downgraded. EBITDA now around DKK 290 million-DKK 330 million. We are doing that because the PP prices or polypropylene prices, as we expected in when we came out with the first guidance, they are not declining as expected.
We also see soft volume in Malaysia, and we are working to offset increasing energy prices, but that's the reason behind the downgrading of our guidance. On to Fibertex Industrial Nonwovens, where we saw a satisfactory development in spite of lower profit. We have to remind ourselves that Q1 2021 was very special. We had very high volume, and we were selling special products, among them a lot of material to respiratory masks. We are not selling to that in Q1 2022 as expected. Revenue was flat because of lower volume, but demand is in general increasing in most of our segments. Our automotive segment is picking up, but slowly.
Our EBITDA in Fibertex Nonwovens is down from DKK 96 million to DKK 42 million, but as I said, also as expected, its effect from lower volume and from lower product mix. We have really been able to offset very significant price increases on raw materials and also on energy. That has been very hard work throughout the organization to compensate that. We have a DKK 600 million investment program running, and it's running as planned. We expect two new lines to be up and in operation mid-2023, producing specialty wipes, strong concepts on sustainability. We have already expected and experienced a very strong and solid interest from global tier ones. Looking forward to have these new lines in operations in 2023.
Our guidance is maintained, EBITDA in the range of DKK 180 million-DKK 220 million. To keep that, we have to continue to push hard for offsetting increasing costs. Our organization has so far been able to do that and shown a very strong excellence in that area. From Fibertex Nonwovens to HydraSpecma, where we have seen very solid development and continuation of the very high activity we have seen, in fact, over the last year. Revenue was up 12% to DKK 643 million, mainly driven by our global OEMs, off-highway equipment, construction equipment, et cetera. Order intake continues at very high level.
Our EBITDA was up 28% to DKK 82 million and driven mainly, of course, by good turnover, good revenue, but also very high efficiency combined with strong pricing execution. HydraSpecma has experienced a lot of increases on components and things like that. We also see good profitability from changed product mix, where we have a higher margin than in other segments. HydraSpecma continues to develop and invest. We just acquired a small Dutch-based company called GSS, easy bolt-on, DKK 35 million turnover, but going to help us to distribute further into Europe. We are just starting up first of April, our new facility in Chennai, India, 4,500 sq m production facility, mainly to accommodate the wind turbine industry.
Guidance from HydraSpecma upgraded due to the good start of 2022. EBITDA now DKK 270-DKK 290. In this guidance, we're also offsetting increasing costs and also effect from cloud, this IT thing we have to put on our P&L. Last company in our portfolio, not least, but last, Borg experienced significant growth. They continue to grow and also with a satisfactory profitability. Good to see that organic growth was + 20% in our old reman business. Total growth of Borg was 74%, but here we had a strong effect from our newly acquired SBS, coming with, or adding DKK 145 million to the top line.
We also see continued strong demand across Europe, seeing that some competitors are weakening, and we are getting opportunities on that account. EBITDA is slightly down to DKK 38 million, but here we had negative impact from our Russian write-down of DKK 11 million. Looking at what we call normalized EBITDA was +21%, and in fact very satisfactory, driven by high efficiency and strong pricing execution. The integration of the newly acquired TMI from Spain and the SBS company, they are both in very good progress. Guidance is upgraded when we adjust for the impact from our Russian activities. We see EBITDA in a range of DKK 180 million-DKK 210 million. Again, also offsetting effect from the [cloud sell-off].
All in all, just a quick glance at our updated guidance. As I mentioned, two of the companies where we are downgrading guidance, mainly due to our Russian activities or not selling to Russia any longer, then we are maintaining the guidance in Fibertex and Borg, and then we are upgrading the guidance in what we call our industrial solution companies, also three of the six companies. Group guidance will now be from DKK 2.07 billion - DKK 2.3 billion. Here we have to bear in mind that that is without any write-downs of our Russian assets.
We feel that in spite of challenging times that we have been able to so far to offset very severe price increases on especially freight and energy, but also raw materials. There's still a lot of uncertainty and increased global risk, but our professional and dedicated organization will do whatever they can to offset this uncertainty. With this, I will just move on to the last slide. Just mentioning that we are having a capital market day on the first of September, somewhere in Copenhagen, venue to be confirmed, but please book the date in your diary. We are looking forward to see as many as possible at our capital market day in Copenhagen.
With that, I will open for a Q&A session. You know the drill on Teams. All microphones are muted now, but if you have a question, raise your hand, and then I will see to that your microphone will be open. I think Kasper is controlling that with a tough hand. If any questions, then I can see we have Klaus with a question.
Ulrik, can I-
Yeah, Ulrik. Yeah. Ulrik, sorry. Is it Ulrik?
Yes. Hello.
Hello.
Hi, yes. Hi, Kasper, and thank you for taking my questions. Firstly, I'll just comment that I think you should consider adding a line in the P&L with non-recurring items, because I found it largely confusing to compare an updated guidance, which was before provisions related to Russia with the EBITDA reported numbers, which included the provisions. Then on to my first question. You mentioned some numbers in the beginning of your presentations related to, was it the Russian impact and the one-off? Can you please just repeat those numbers?
The Russian impact. If you take the EBITDA as it was in Q1, we have the Russian impact of around DKK 50 million, DKK 46 million Russian impact. We have the lost patent case of DKK 16 million, altogether DKK 72 million. I think also I mentioned that's not one-off, but we have had huge impact from what I said, exploding costs on freight and energy of around DKK 80 million, but that's not one-offs, of course. One-off around DKK 70 million-DKK 75 million.
All right. Thank you for that.
Okay.
Question on this negative EBITDA effect from lost sales to Russia.
Yeah.
You said the total is DKK 80 million.
Yes.
Yeah, for 2022.
Yes.
What is the composition between the portfolio companies of those DKK 80 million?
A main part is coming from BioMar, and then the second is from Borg, SBS, and then Fibertex Personal Care. That's the three companies impacted, but BioMar by far the largest.
All right. To BioMar and the adjusted guidance, you decreased the midpoint by DKK 90 million. I'm just trying to.
Mm-hmm.
Bridge the different factors that you've mentioned. You said something about lost Russian sales. There was a lawsuit, Klaus. But if I add it all up, and if I assume the lost Russian sales is, It's a large part of the DKK 80 million. But if I-
Yeah.
If I just say it's DKK 60 million, and I add it to the cloud of DKK 20 million, lawsuit of DKK 16 million, then it actually implies that you are upgrading the rest of the business. Is that a fair assumption? Or yeah.
I think the assumption is that we are keeping the business as is. We're not upgrading in general. As we are saying, we expect, because as you also see, Q1 was, the product mix was different, and so we expect BioMar to deliver on guidance in the last three quarters.
Understood. The last Russian sales, do you expect to be able to offset that?
We cannot offset.
In other markets?
Yeah. I have to say, in BioMar, we cannot offset everything. We have over 25 years built a very strong and very also profitable market in Russia. We cannot offset that. It's a huge volume out of Denmark. Of course, we are working hard on trying to see if we can use the capacity elsewhere and so on. We can offset something, but it takes a long time in BioMar. We have in FPC, I expect that not, maybe not this year, but we'll be able to sell the volume elsewhere. In Borg, it's especially SBS that had a very strong position in Russia. Takes time to build new markets.
It's not something that will be done tomorrow, but of course, we work hard on it. We can use some capacity for other markets, but it takes time.
All right. A final question on BioMar. The gross profit per kilo was obviously down again, and I think it's the lowest level you've seen in a long time, for many quarters.
It is, yeah.
Should we look at this as a trough and that we will see it improving from here?
You will see that improving. I also said that we are now in the contract negotiations on the salmon contracts and so on, and we have to have compensation for energy and transportation and so on. Of course, you know, it's a challenge and it's hard, but we will have some of the costs into the new contracts. It's. You're right, it's a very low per kilo margin, but impacted by transportation, by energy. Then there's also some mix of segments where we are. Some of our high value markets or high margin markets has been a bit down due to biological conditions. Russia, as I said, very high margin market, has also been out of no sales.
That's the reasons, but we will work hard on getting margins back.
That is very clear. Thank you so much, Jens.
Thank you for your questions.
Klaus Kehl.
Klaus Kehl. Have you muted? Yeah.
Sorry. Some technical problems.
Okay. No problem, Klaus. Yeah.
Down here.
Fine.
First of all, also a question about BioMar. You mentioned that I think you said that input costs are exploding, and you definitely have to raise prices. What does this mean for the competitive situation in the industry going forward? Also, you just talked about margins being squeezed quite significantly. Do you dare to give us any comments about what would be a reasonable margin for 2023 in BioMar? That would be my first question.
That's a very good question, but also very hard to answer, especially the later part of the question. Yeah, as you said, from the competitive situation, I think all in this industry are facing exactly the same challenges as we are, meaning exploding energy costs. We are using a lot of gas, in fact, in most of our factories to dry the fish feed and so on. You also know it takes a lot of transportation and logistics around. I think all of us are faced with that. Raw materials, same situation. A lot of raw materials coming out of Russia and Ukraine, difficult to get. I think everyone has to look into how to compensate. We can compensate in two ways.
Of course, going to the market, asking for higher prices, and we do that, but you also need to work on your recipe, composition, optimize use best cost raw materials, and that's a huge operation to do that. Then, of course, also looking into to the logistics setup. When we are discussing 2023, I think it's very difficult to say what kind of margin we can expect, but we are working on improving our margin, especially in our salmon segment. We are really working hard on that. The problem is that in some of the contracts we have today, we have these cost-plus contracts. They do not take into consideration that energy all of a sudden exploded.
We have to factor that in one or another way in future.
Okay. You just mentioned that you use a lot of gas.
Mm-hmm.
In a worst case scenario, there is no gas in, let's say, a couple of months. Then what? Can you switch to oil or any thoughts about that?
Yeah, we can switch to oil. We can switch to electricity. Of course, we are preparing and also have contingency plans and so on in place, but it's not done overnight. It's something we are working hard on. There, we think there'll be gas available. Also, we are one of the industries where we think we will have a priority for gas, or we know that. Still, we are working on what can we do in future. Yeah. We have to do that.
Okay, great. A question about your net working capital.
Yeah.
It's going up again.
Yes.
Could you talk a little bit about what you will do in order to get it down? Do you dare to give us an estimate for your net debt end of the year?
No, I do not dare to do that because it's still too uncertain. Be sure that we are working very hard on this. Mainly, the working capital is driven from two sides. One is of course high activity, but then also increasing raw material prices. That is some raw materials increasing 30%-40%, meaning also when you have inventories on them, of course your inventory value will be much higher. It's driven mainly from inventories in our industrial companies, meaning GPV as our electronics company. They are by far the largest inventory buildup, and also thereby the kind of explosion in working capital.
Thinking the other companies, we can work more around it, but we have to realize also that components, raw material prices have increased a lot. That's one thing that we can do, and then of course work hard on other ways to work with when we get our backlog, how do we then handle that backlog? We have the highest backlog ever, and when you have a backlog, you need to secure that you have components, et cetera, in stock, and we are looking into that also. Are we strong enough on that? Is our enterprise resource planning systems good enough? There's a lot of hard work going on. We have a strong intention of bringing down our net interest-bearing debts.
Also, of course, we expect to generate a cash flow the last three quarters. First quarter is the lowest cash flow quarter in as a company. We expect to bring it down, but I do not dare. It would not be serious to give any figure on expected net interest-bearing debt end year.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Claus Almer.
Yes. A few questions from my side. The first is about your guidance.
Yeah.
Maybe you could put some color on what would it take for a scenario where you end in the low end or in the upper end of the guidance range? Linked to this question, is the guidance based on the current spot energy and raw material prices now adjusted for whatever hitches you may have? That would be the first one.
As a starting point, it's based on what we know now. Of course, we have worked on the guidance more or less until this morning. We have the newest information on energy prices, et cetera, in the guidance. What it takes, if it should be in the low end, I think that there's a lot of volume in this also. We need, of course, to keep our volume, but also that we are able to offset increasing costs as we have been so far. If we should end in the higher ends, then we need to continue to work hard on offsetting price increases. Some of the companies have...
It's more, it's not easy, but they have an easier route to do that than others. We could see some volume increase in some segments where we have a very, very strong demand. If we could get components and things like that, then revenue could increase, and that would then lead us up in the upper end. To be fair and open, I would say for the time being, it's difficult really to say A or B. We feel it's rather interesting. I feel very comfortable on the guidance we are giving because it's best knowledge, and we have worked hard on it.
It's so uncertain times that you also say, "Okay, I feel comfortable." In my long life, I think, I've never seen costs exploding like that up and down.
Fair enough, Jens. Is there any of your divisions where you are really struggling to pass through cost inflation?
Yeah, you could say if you take Fibertex Personal Care, where we work with contracts with all the big tier one or blue-chip customers. There we have been able to the raw materials on a quarterly basis, but when it comes to energy and things like that, then it's very difficult because say, okay, you have your conversion margin, and we have given you the opportunity to pass on raw material costs and so and so. It's not easy. We have to find a way. We're trying to see if we next year can get something into our contracts, but they are struggling on that.
Especially also when you have customers, I have to say it, in the automotive segment, they are tough cookies, and you really need to work hard on it. Of course, they understand 100% the situation, but, you know, then they start discussing, and it can take three, four, five months, and then all of a sudden they accept it. Automotive, difficult. Fibertex Personal Care, difficult. Of course, all the small customers. They accept it, but they are struggling because if prices get too high, they cannot sell their products and so on. It's a balance, but it's really tough work. Our organization is really working hard on doing this.
Okay. GPV, as you said, you are now booking orders for 2024.
Uh-huh.
How do you make sure that whatever price quotes you have so far into the future not suddenly, you know, getting, you know, way out of whack?
Yeah.
Turning to a liability.
Yeah, that's also a very good question. Of course we have contract obligations that when we buy components and so on, most of our customers, they're contractually obliged to take at least the inventories and so on. Of course, we try to balance the risk and we have good contracts in place on that. You also know when we have the inventory on hand, and it's the customer's inventory more or less, so they have no obligation, and then they say, "Okay, if you demand we should take it tomorrow, we'll do it, but then maybe it's the last time we are having business together." It's really a balance. So far, no problems. We cannot supply enough.
If we see de-booming, what will then happen? It's really, contingency plans needs to be in place.
What's the other way around that you got the orders, but you can't supply? Do you have any, you know, yeah, any liability there?
No, not really, because in electronics, you can miss one or two components, and then you cannot supply. It's too dangerous to accept liabilities. We do not have that.
Okay. Just the issues within BioMar with these biological things you mentioned. Can you put a little bit more word to this? Is that you or your customers who are facing these issues?
No, it's yeah, it's biological. There have been in Q1 very strange as in the northern part it has been too cold or colder than normal, meaning that fish are not feeding that much. Then in the southern hemisphere, mainly in Tasmania, which is also an attractive margin area, there it has been so hot that the fish did not feed. It's these conditions, climate affect a lot, especially in Q1. It can be too cold and it can be too hot. Then we have also seen some algae bloom in Chile. If the algae are blooming too much, then the fish don't feed. It's things we experience now and then and not. It will always be there.
This quarter we had both hot and warm and algae bloom and things like that. It's not a huge impact, but it has impacted.
It's not easy.
Uh, uh.
I will not disappoint you with a question regarding net working capital.
Of course.
Then looking at your cash flow statement and your net working capital trend, then coming back to your ability to M&A, then, you know, by own choice almost, you are reducing your, you know, issues of not investing your money. You're just putting it into the inventories.
Yes.
Is that by choice, so you are not getting all these questions about M&A activity?
Claus, it's not 100% by choice, I have to say that. Then I think also, to be honest, I'm not surprised because that's a wrong word to use, but that we need to tie up that much because raw material prices and things has exploded. But of course, some of it is by choice, especially if we look at what we call the industrial companies, GPV, HydraSpecma and so on. We have more inventories that we would normally have also in numbers, also not only in value, but in numbers. Meaning inventory days are up at a level we would not normally accept. But we have done that due to this special circumstances. We have to work hard on our inventories and get them down. It's mainly the main issue is GPV.
The other ones, I think when we start into the season you will see, Fibertex Personal Care, especially BioMar, they will reduce inventories and so on. You are right, but it's not on purpose.
I know. I just wanted to ask the usual question a different way.
No, in fact it's interesting because, when things develop like this, all of a sudden you have to face new challenges, as you said. Well, why don't you do M&As? Now we're putting it on inventory instead of and we would prefer to do a mix.
Fair enough. That's all for me. Thanks.
Super. Thanks, Claus.
Ulrik.
Ulrik?
Yes, just a few follow-up questions, also to Claus' question about the guidance, but more particularly on GPV. You're saying you have a full order book for the rest of the year. So what should happen? Or is the top of the guidance range on EBITDA as good as it can get? Or what? Is there any way it could be even better?
I think, Claus, as we speak, it's as good as it could get. Of course, if they have a smooth operation on the backlog, we can have more components and so on, and they can maybe have a more turnover, things can change. As we speak now, it's very difficult to maneuver in this component situation. I think, we are very satisfied with the development so far in GPV and they are doing very well. I think it's what we see now, or it is what we see now. We have been around our guidance a lot over the last two weeks.
All right. On HydraSpecma, what is the current trading for April or?
Yeah, but, yeah. Sorry.
You hear a lot about the high inflation, slowdown of the economy and industrial companies. Just what is the latest trend?
The latest, if it goes on HydraSpecma, you could say, wind, which is one of the important segments, you know, also the challenges from investors and so on in wind. If we look at the other very important segment, what we call global OEMs, construction equipment, off highway, et cetera, very strong demand. These two segments, they are balancing each other. We do not see any easing off or cooling off on demand from global OEMs.
Okay, thank you. That's all for me. Thank you.
Sure. Just, I forgot to comment on your non-recurring item line. Claus, we'll consider that. That was a good input from you. Thank you.
Klaus Kehl.
Klaus Kehl.
Yes. A follow-up question. You have mentioned a lot of times these exploding input costs.
Yeah.
I guess the problem is it will only get worse in Q2. Do you have any high-level thoughts about earnings in Q2? Should we expect a similar underlying EBIT, for instance, in Q2? Yeah. Some high-level thoughts.
Yeah. When I'm saying exploding now, I think, freight costs, we know where they are now, more or less. Of course, energy costs still fluctuating. We have seen them, slightly down over the last days, but again, fluctuating a lot. Raw materials, I think we have a lot of our raw materials on contract now. We feel that we have not 100% control on the situation, but we have a good overview. When you say, what should we expect in Q2? We know that Fibertex Personal Care will have a difficult, in brackets, difficult Q2 because we know exactly the raw material input price and what we can get and so on. We can first offset that in Q3.
There you will see a weaker Q2. BioMar is now also starting more the season is more starting up, et cetera. I think we have a good overview on costs, et cetera, contracts, et cetera. Of course, energy is the real tricky part of this. The energy and availability of certain raw materials, whereby certain things can change because they are not available.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Claus. Okay. No more questions. Thank you very much for questions and for listening. By this, we are closing down here in Aarhus. Not so good.