Welcome to the presentation of Schouw & Co.'s Q2 reports. We had a very satisfying Q2 in spite of very difficult environment. It was difficult to maneuver for our companies in this environment. Main costs continued to increase. We saw energy and freight costs up with more than DKK 100 million throughout the quarter. I think we have seen strong efforts in all our companies to work hard on getting compensation for majority of the price increases. They've been working very hard on getting price increases up in the market. We have used a lot of tools from what we call our operational toolbox. It's very necessary that you are on top of things when things are as turbulent as they have been in this quarter.
We saw a very strong and satisfying growth, 34% up to DKK 7.5 billion. Improved cost has, of course, been a very strong driver in this growth. We have also seen organic growth of 9%. Volume and activities have been up in most of our companies. EBITDA came out at a very satisfactory level of DKK 564 million, including several months one-offs of aroUnd DKK 25 million. Our net working capital continued to grow. It's a very important focus area for us, but our inventory has increased as expected and also as a strategic decision from us, so we have been able to deliver and supply our customers also throughout the quarter.
Let me turn to BioMar, as you know, the biggest company in our portfolio. Revenue was up 42% to DKK 4 billion. Of course, here we saw a very huge impact from raw material prices. We had a satisfactory growth in the volume, 9% up, and there was a little bit more than expected. EBITDA up 24% to DKK 261 million. We saw a very good development in our Salmon division, especially, Chile came very, very well out of the quarter and the Salmon division was able more or less to offset the impact we had from not selling any more to Russia.
Energy and freight cost has been up a lot and close to more than 50%, DKK 50 million impact throughout the quarter. BioMar have continued to expand and pursue the strong growth strategy. We acquired and have been integrating the Tasmanian tech company AQ1, and we have also just recently announced a new JV on establishing a feed factory in Iceland, very interesting new market, a market we have a strong belief in, but of course it takes time to build and be ready with a new factory up there. We are coming out with a guidance upgrade due to optimizations and very good margin management throughout BioMar.
Revenue is now expected to be between DKK 16.5 billion and DKK 17.5 billion , of course, also because of the cost inflation. EBITDA is now up to DKK 910-DKK 960 million , and as I said, because we have seen very good optimization and also good volume in some core markets throughout the last period. We still hold assets in Russia in BioMar of around DKK 45 million , mostly cash at bank, just for information. Turning to GPV. Another very strong quarter for GPV. Continued solid demand from the market. Once again, in a quarter, the turnover exceeded DKK 1 billion, more or less a DKK 1.1 billion turnover for the quarter.
They are building on a very solid backlog, and the order intake in GPV is still continuing at a very strong pace. EBITDA was up 27% to DKK 97 million, and of course, part of it is due to the fact that we can deliver on this very strong backlog, but also high efficiency throughout all the production units in GPV. We have still a very difficult component situation. It continues to put pressure on both our net working capital, as mentioned, and then also on our organization. We have a very huge inventory built up to support this very strong backlog. We are very proud to announce intended merger with Swiss-based Enics. It was announced in June.
Enics is, as I said, a Swiss-based company, DKK 4 billion turnover, seven factories, and 3,500 employees, a very perfect and good strategic match to GPV. We will then build a European number two in the EMS business or electronic manufacturing service business. There's a strong strategic rationale, and we are really expecting to find scale. We will come with further information when the deal is closed, expected to be closed beginning of October if all authorities allow us to. Guidance will be upgraded for GPV. Revenue now up expected up 10% between DKK 3.9 billion-DKK 4.1 billion, and EBITDA now around DKK 330 million-DKK 360 million, and in these figures there are that you don't see any impact from Enics.
Of course, when we have a closing, we will come out and tell more about the figures and expected impact on 2022. Turning to Fibertex Personal Care. Revenue was up by 6% due to continued increasing raw material prices. Volume in our Malaysian division has been challenged over the quarter. Some of our key customers have been challenged in their markets, especially in China. EBITDA, as expected, down 23% to DKK 43 million. I think when we had this call last time, we also said that Q2 would be very challenging for FPC also due to higher raw material costs. Asia market still expected to increase over the coming years.
We have a start-up of our new Reicofil 5 line in Malaysia that was expected to start here in second half of 2022, but due to some technical issues, it will be postponed until Q1 2023. Guidance will slightly be downgraded due to soft volume in Malaysia. Turnover around DKK 2.5 billion and EBITDA in a range of DKK 290 million-DKK 320 million based on also expected decline in our PP prices. From FC to Fibertex Nonwovens. It has been a very challenging quarter for Fibertex Nonwovens. Turnover up 10% to DKK 563 million, only because of huge raw material impact. Volumes down in two segments in wipes and filtration materials. EBITDA then also down from DKK 82 million to DKK 40 million.
Of course, here we see effect from lower volume, especially also from product mix and higher costs. We are supplying less what we call into the advanced product segment in this quarter. We had unfortunately an unexpected loss on a debtor in U.S. of DKK 13 million impacting the EBITDA result. We have initiated a strong protection plan in Fibertex Nonwovens, and they are pursuing hard on that. Guidance will of course because of this weak Q2 be downgraded. Turnover now expected DKK 1.9 billion-DKK 2.1 billion. EBITDA around DKK 150 million-DKK 180 million. Of course, the organization will continue to push hard for offsetting increased costs.
They have worked hard on it already and continue to fight hard for getting necessary volume. Turning to HydraSpecma, continued very good development especially to what we call global OEMs kind of companies producing off-highway equipment, et cetera, which has, as expected, been slower in Q2. Revenue up 7% to DKK 652 million. Order intake, however, still positive. EBITDA down from DKK 86 million to DKK 74 million, but here we also have to look at effect from a sale of real estate back in Q2 2021 of DKK 12 million, so meaning we have EBITDA same level as 2021. Of course, we have also here seen increasing cost and components and other variables as transportation and so on.
It's been worked hard and put strong efforts into being compensated in the market for these increasing costs. There's also in HydraSpecma continued focus on the development in our net working capital and especially on our inventories. Guidance for HydraSpecma will be maintained. EBITDA in the spread of DKK 270 million-DKK 290 million, and here we have a strong backlog to deliver on. Last company in our portfolio, Borg Automotive. Borg Automotive continues to grow. Turnover was for the quarter DKK 482 million. Here we experienced organic growth of 19% in what we call the old Reman business, that's the business where we remanufacture parts.
Total, we had a 65% growth of turnover, and there we saw the effect from the newly acquired SBS, DKK 113 million did they bring into the turnover. We continue to see a solid demand across Europe for both SBS products, but also for Reman products. EBITDA up 25% to DKK 59 million. We have seen a satisfactory efficiency and very strong pricing execution at Borg. Also good development in SBS. We are extending product capacity in Poland to accommodate increasing demand on specific products. Guidance will be maintained. EBITDA DKK 170 million-DKK 200 million expected. We also see that the earn-out value on SBS, which was downgraded in Q1, is unchanged for the time being.
Finally, just to sum up on our updated guidance, been through all companies, meaning that we now expect group guidance of around DKK 2.07 billion-DKK 2.27 billion. As I said, underlying demand still good. We have continued efforts on compensating huge cost increases. We intend to be on top of it, and all our organizations are working hard on that. It's including effects from Russia, meaning lower EBITDA because we don't have any sales from BioMar to Russia. Then also we realized a write-off of DKK 44 million-DKK 45 million. Also mentioned earlier, no impact from the announced Enics merger. New guidance on that will be updated when we close as expected, beginning of October.
With that, just mentioning the last thing, we are having our capital market day. It has been a long time coming, and we now have a capital market day in Copenhagen, first of September. Hope to see a lot of you there. We will have three themes, building on Schouw long-term ambition. We will bring in the Chief Executive Officer from BioMar to elaborate on the BioMar 2028+ strategy. Then the Chief Executive Officer of GPV, Bo Lybæk, who will introduce the Enics merger and elaborate also on the impressive development that GPV have been through over the last years. With that slide, I will just put on this one and open up for questions. I think he is saying that all microphones are muted.
If you have questions, raise your hand, and then somebody here in this room will do some magic, so you can get your microphone open. If any questions, then please come on. Claus Almer has already raised his hand. Welcome, Claus. Maybe he's still muted. Or some technical problems. Ulrik Bak, maybe could you-
Yes, hello, can you hear me?
Super. Thank you very much, Ulrik. We were nervous that the technology here didn't function, so you saved us. Yeah.
That's great. Yeah. Hi, Jens. Hi, Kasper. Just a question on BioMar. Gross profit per kilo increased quite a bit in the quarter, and it's actually the highest level since 2019, as I can see in my spreadsheet. I guess some of it has been driven by higher pass-through of costs in the quarter. Is there also something in your product mix, contract mix or so on, which has changed in the quarter compared to last year, which could indicate the profitability will be consistently stronger going forward?
Yeah, I think, as I also mentioned, that we have seen Chile coming back. Chile last year was down and margins were very low, and Chile has really delivered strong on profitability. Then of course, also product mix. Also, if we're looking into our LatAm division, good development there. There's a lot of market mix, product mix, but mainly also driven out of good margin management in Chile. I think that, or we expect that to continue also over the next period. Absolutely.
Can you allude to what the status is of the Chilean salmon market? Is it back to pre-COVID levels, or does it still have some way to go to recover fully?
It has been improving a lot. I wouldn't be able to say if it's 100% recovered, but it has really improved a lot. There's still things to work on. I also think we could continue to improve efficiency and our margin management and so on. We are quite confident on the Chilean market and also on our position and opportunities in Chile.
Okay, thank you. On the acquisition of AQ1, what's the contribution on EBITDA from this acquisition in the quarter?
It has been very low in the quarter, also because we have some PPAs and so on. The quarter is quite blurry. I think we will see next quarter we will have a more normalized operational. It has been profitable, also with the EBITDA as expected. It's of course still a rather small company, but we expect quite good impact in the months to come on AQ1.
Thank you. A question on your guidance for GPV. The upgraded guidance implies that GPV, for the second half of 2022, should have a decrease in EBITDA compared to first half of 16%, and compared to last year, second half, 18% lower this year. Is that a continued reflection of the supply chain uncertainty or what is the reasoning for this decline?
Absolutely. The main reason is the supply chain and transport around and so on. That's our main concern. If supply chain tightens up and so on, maybe there are some potential there. As we are looking at things now, we still see these uncertainties. We have, however, seen some supplies being shorter, but still it's into 2023 before we really see significant improvements in our supply chain. It's implying that it's challenged and there's a lot of uncertainty still around.
That's clear. Compared to when you last time gave your Q1 report, has the outlook for the supply chain gotten worse or gotten better? Or is it more or less the same?
I would say on lead times, Ulrik, it has been better. Still, you know, we are having a lot of inventories, and before we get supplies, it takes time. Lead time has been shortened, but it won't impact 2022.
All right. A question on Fibertex Nonwovens. Obviously, it's a quite weak quarter, and you talk about demand also seem to be weakening and the bankruptcy of this customer of Fibertex Nonwovens. What does that tell you in terms of the profitability of the end markets and the end market demand that a customer goes bankrupt?
It tells us a lot about. There was a lot of corona or COVID-related products, and this customer has been supplying a lot of products into this. It also shows us that the low-cost products for this is down and volume is very low, and they couldn't sustain that. I think looking at the Fibertex Nonwovens, we were in it, and we got a lot of opportunities to supply this volume, but it's not our business. Our business is more what we call advanced products and looking into upgrading on specialty wipes and things like that. It's companies that has really benefited from the corona situation, and they are now suffering because there's no volume.
This is not something which makes you worry about the investments that you've put into new capacity for Fibertex Nonwovens?
Overall, no. Of course, we are looking into again to the business case and the business plans and has something changed. The general view is still that there's a strong market going ahead for these specialties and kind of sustainable products and so on, which we are going to introduce into the market. We are reassessing our business plans. We have the investments in progress now, and we are working hard on getting a strong sales pipeline up, and we see that, of course, we revisit it again.
Okay. That's very clear. Thank you so much. No further questions at this time.
Thank you very much, Ulrik.
Claus Kyed.
Claus Kyed. Hello.
Yes. Good afternoon.
Yeah.
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can, Claus. Super. Welcome.
Excellent. Two questions. First of all, if I look at your net interest-bearing debt, it's now up to around DKK 4.3 billion.
Yeah.
I think it's up DKK 1.8 billion since the end of 2021.
Yeah.
Do you have any targets or anything that we could look at for end of 2022? That would be my first question.
Yeah. To be honest and fair, of course, we have a target we are working after, but in these times, we have deployed a lot of our capital into inventories to be able to deliver and so on. We expect our inventories and our net working capital to decrease, but it's very difficult to give a clear target. We have a clear target of bringing it down and working on it, but we also say that being able to deliver and service our customers is very important. Of course, also there's an effect from acquisition of AQ1. There's effect from our rather large investment program in both Fibertex Nonwovens and in GPV.
Working on bringing it down, but a specific target I can't disclose yet.
Okay. In this respect, I noticed that you in the report write something that you have increased the use of supply chain finance.
Yeah.
How much supply chain finance do you have end of Q2?
We have DKK 1.23 billion to be specific in supply chain financing, mainly, in BioMar.
Okay, how much has that gone up here in 2022?
Around DKK 500 million. DKK 400 million-something, I think it is. Yeah.
Final question. The raw material impact in both Fibertex companies is rather significant during the first half.
Yeah.
You have any thoughts about impact for second half? Will it start to become easier or, yeah, any thoughts about that?
Yeah, a very clear thought on, as I think I mentioned also on the FPC. The guidance implies that we will see a declining PP price, and we are seeing it now. Meaning, but of course we are lagging a little bit, but we are seeing falling prices on that. Same goes for Fibertex Nonwoven s. However, they are working on a broader raw material platform. They are not only polypropylene, they also have a virgin PET and recycled PET. Price fluctuations are a little bit different there. We will see a declining raw materials in both companies, yes.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Super. Thank you for your question.
Claus Almer.
Claus Almer.
I hope you can hear me now.
Yes, clear and clear.
Oh. That is just perfect.
Yeah. Super good.
The first one question goes to transportation costs and supply chain costs. You know, you are missing this a number of times during the report.
Yeah.
Has this gone worse, better, or the same, than after Q1? That would be the first question.
I think as energy cost has gone worse. I think transportation costs more or less at same level, if you look at a percentage of turnover to freight and transport products around. But energy definitely been higher, and we are working on how to mitigate that by introducing new energy sources, by converting our gas driven ovens, et cetera, into electricity, oil or whatever. So it has gone worse. As I say, in the quarter, energy and transportation or freight up DKK 100 million in the quarter. So, yeah.
If you've been really good in passing through, at least, as a net to all the customers.
Yeah.
With things going worse, do you see a, you know, a maximum if things, you know, continue to worsen that then it will be impossible to pass through? Or are you still in a very strong pricing power position?
No, I think we have been in a quite strong position and worked hard on it, of course. I think we were discussing it the other day in Borg, interesting in the reman business, we think that the prices are at a level now. It's difficult. We can get prices through maybe, but then we'll see demand really go down. I think maybe in a few companies, we could still pass on a little bit. We are working on a surcharge way on energy because that's maybe now the only way we can get. If energy continues to increase, then we could have a kind of a surcharge where we immediately put on and also reduce if things happen. So that's the way we are thinking now.
Let's have the optimistic view. Let's assume that, these costs will start to decline. That will happen at one point. Do you think it'll be one to one being given back to the customers, or would you actually be able to be a little bit slow in passing through the cost savings?
Yeah, I will promise you that we will try to be as slow as possible. Of course, we are also in a world with competition and so on. We will of course be slow and have a lot of discussions on that because also we were lagging. As when prices started to increase, it took time before we really were allowed to get the price increases, and especially in some segments, it has been very difficult and taking a long time. We will really try to keep and protect our margins by of course being reasonable, but protect ourselves.
Okay. A question regarding the guidance for BioMar. Initially, you guided for a 5% volume growth, as I recall.
Yeah.
You haven't really updated that part of the guidance. After 9% volume growth in Q2, what should we expect for the full year when it comes to the volume?
Yeah, of course, I have to again also Q1. To be honest, I'm not 100% of the volume increase in how it was in Q1, but I think in general, you will see a volume. We expect volume to grow also in Q3 and Q4. We have quite a good contract base in our Salmon division. One issue is honestly that we do not sell anything to Russia any longer. And Q2, Q3, big volumes are huge volumes there. We have seen a situation in Europe that is really concerning. No water. It's very warm. Fish don't eat when it's too warm, and we have a lot of freshwater fish we feed, and there's lacking so much freshwater in rivers and so on.
It's a concern, but we expect volume to grow.
Okay. Should that mean we should be a little bit cautious on Q3 volume for BioMar?
I wouldn't say that. No.
It was more a Schouw comment that everything is really bad, but actually growing quite nicely.
No, I'm not saying it's. I think, Claus, honestly, I think I started saying Salmon is quite, and that's a big volume. We have really challenges in EMEA, and it's smaller volume there. Maybe you are a little bit right, but I think I also say that Salmon, we feel quite comfortable in Salmon and the volumes there.
Okay.
Also we saw we had some good volumes in the shrimp also in our Ecuador business, because some of our competitors had problems in supplying raw materials and so on. Maybe that will also a little bit. Let's stick out a little bit and say we expect volume to increase.
Right. The final question that goes to the nonwovens business.
Yeah.
Let's call it a roller coaster. After a number of years of very disappointing performance, then suddenly you really had strong performance for a couple of years.
Yeah.
Last year was not that great, but you said it will improve during this year.
Yeah.
It hasn't really.
Yeah.
You could say, what is the true nature of nonwoven? Was it before the COVID? You know, the strong performance or is it more like we see today? It's just coming back to how it was a few years back.
Yeah. No, I think it is a very relevant question, but I think it's a mix and also with the way we have worked with the Fibertex Nonwovens strategically and investments and so on. We are moving away from volume. We have this strategy from volume to value. We have been offsetting U.S. I have to say honestly that U.S. has really disappointed us this year because U.S. was so strong last year. Then maybe we have overlooked a little bit that there's some of the advanced products, especially for very advanced respiratory mask and so on, has gone down. We still pursue this added value strategy, and we strongly believe that profits will improve and we are on the right track, but we have had a setback.
Does that mean that, let's just say 2024 is unaffected by what we are seeing this year? In 2024 we should be back absolutely on track.
Yeah, absolutely. That's the clear strategy, the clear plan. Also, we are coming in with new capacity, not only volume capacity, but new advanced capacity for very advanced products. So you definitely 2024, we should see that. That's our strategy, and otherwise we need to do something.
Okay. That is in my note now, Jens. You can-
No, that is true. Certainly.
That'll be the question for 2024.
I'm looking forward, Claus, but 100% sure we are not investing and doing a lot of things if we don't expect to deliver. That's a clear strategy, and we will work hard on that. Absolutely. Fair question. Yeah.
Thank you so much. That was all for me.
Thank you, Claus. No hands raised, no further questions. Thank you very much for listening and-
Claus Kyed.
Oh, sorry. There was a last-minute call. Claus Kyed. Or is it a Claus Noland?
Sorry about that. I forgot to take my hand down.
Okay, good. You are young, so it wasn't a no-land. Thank you. No, thank you to everyone, and thank you for listening. Thank you for the questions. We say goodbye from here now. Thank you very much.